Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ A shadow war is being fought over the Russian army's access to Starlink. The Russians face a constant battle with Starlink itself and Ukrainian hackers deactivating their terminals, and obstruction from the Russian customs service holding up grey imports of Starlink devices.⬇️

2/ Starlink is banned from being exported to Russia, but can be obtained unofficially through grey imports from Central Asia and China. Most Starlink terminals used by Russian forces are obtained by volunteers and shipped across Russia's southern land borders.

3/ However, they are vulnerable to disruption by Starlink itself, which periodically disables terminals located in Russian-held territory, they are targeted by hackers, and the very slow and cumbersome Russian customs process holds up imports for long periods.

4/ Starlink terminals provided by the Russian warblogger Roman Saponkov were recently hacked and disabled, likely by the Ukrainians, cutting off the communications of Russian frontline troops. This has caused bad feelings towards Saponkov due to his team's security failures.

5/ 'Za Yug 123' writes:

"Let me explain: in November, there was a problem with Roman Saponkov's Starlinks, or more accurately, the situation at the front with those servicing Roman's team's coveted satellite dishes."

6/ "Their server containing emails and passwords was hacked, and access to the satellite dishes was consequently lost. We were left either without communication at all or with barely any communication.

7/ "And I wouldn't have said a word if this had been the usual SpaceX blockade (remember, satellite dishes are banned from Russia), but this is something else entirely.

8/ "Roman's team failed to keep an eye on things: they failed to ensure server security, and consequently, our guys manning those satellite dishes in their positions."

Valentin Kaskov, CIO of the Special Systems and Technologies Group of Companies, provides more insights:

9/ "Starlink activations are a business. I've been monitoring this segment for over two years, and it never ceases to amaze me—how the pursuit of profit can blind us to investing in basic information security.

10/ "What happened?

Access to the mail server and (possibly) the data server, if there was one, was compromised. Although, most likely, all of Roman's critical information was stored in one bin.

11/ "1. Hacking the infrastructure.

Yesterday, the system used by Roman Saponkov was hacked. Around 1,000 accounts he managed were compromised.

12/ "2. Vulnerable mail server.

Roman's team used their own mail server with an open web interface. The hackers gained access to it and, consequently, administrative control over the accounts.

13/ "3. Credential theft.

The attackers accessed clients' email addresses and changed the email addresses and passwords for their Starlink accounts. Essentially, the accounts were completely hijacked.

14/ "4. Attacks on Starlink equipment.

Having gained access, the attackers began remotely rebooting the devices. The terminals were unable to enter operational mode and remained unavailable.

15/ "5. Loss of access overnight.

Overnight, thousands of users lost control and were unable to recover. These accounts were completely lost. And they were lost solely due to the team's negligence and incompetence."

16/ Saponkov says he has made amends:

"Friends, we've had an unpleasant experience. After a massive attack on us, we restored most of the terminals and provided assistance to the guys totaling over 2.5 million rubles [$31,267] ..."

17/ "Starlink has an entire department dedicated to identifying satellite dishes in the North-Eastern Front zone, and we also have intelligence agencies working against us, attacking servers—essentially a separate cyber front.

18/ "This is on top of the sanctions war. I recently flew to fraternal Kazakhstan, at Canada's request, to be placed on a personal blacklist for opening accounts and transporting any cargo.

19/ "This happened after we once smuggled Canadian-made GPS boards for our Baba Yaga [drone] equivalent. Under someone else's name, of course, but intelligence is always on the alert."

20/ 'Za Yug 123' is not happy with the situation, noting that the Starlinks and their subscriptions are paid for by the soldiers themselves out of their salaries, rather than by the Russian army or Ministry of Defence:

21/ "I got involved with Starlinks in 2023, and I already know a lot of the ins and outs. I've been through more than one block with our soldiers, I've survived untrustworthy activators, I've activated and regularly pay for them (including Roman's), probably over a thousand…

22/ …satellite dishes now. And in this situation, of course, I could have said something like, "It's the first time, and that it'll be a lesson—everyone can get hacked," or, "Well, he didn't completely give up, he's doing something."

23/ "Yes, I agree that tech support was involved, and they didn't immediately tell us to get lost... BUT!

24/ "Being constantly on the Front and delving into the soldiers' endless problems, I've long understood that everyone wants to make money off of soldiers, but only a few actually help, do something, and not just promise.

25/ "I often tell guys to their faces that they're weaklings and losers, and not to insult them, but because it's a fact – anyone and everyone takes advantages of soldiers, they get scammed on every corner, no scammer would turn a soldier in the trenches down, and that's on top…

26/ …of the constant spending on essential military items, which are never enough (I think every soldier is smiling sadly right now, remembering what he has already spent on combat supplies and how much he has contributed to the company pot).

27/ "So, all activations and renewals aren't free, not at cost, so to speak, they're paid for with a commission from the activator (in our case, that's Roman)."

28/ 'The Ghost of Novorossiya' laments the fact that Russia has failed to provide its troops with a Starlink equivalent:

29/ "[W]here is our satellite internet, where are our high-tech developments, where are the options for packet data transmission that we can use right now on the front lines?

30/ "(By the way, we are already working closely and constructively with those who know how to do this, but this is essentially a private initiative built on horizontal and vertical connections.)"

31/ "We'll simply leave out for now the extra efforts aimed at importing all this from China, launching it, servicing it... Including the opposition from Russian customs,🤦‍🤦‍🤦‍which in some place [thinks there] "isn't a war".

32/ "We, of course, have continued and will continue to work. But how much longer we can hold out like this, actually fighting in encirclement—I don't know.

Maybe people smarter than me can explain this to the fighting units, from whom requests are coming in en masse." /end

Sources:
🔹 t.me/za_ug123/10433
🔹 vc.ru/id3988320/2622…
🔹 t.me/RSaponkov/12440
🔹 t.me/ghost_of_novor…