5 ms·

Elon Musk's Starlink internet service installed in White House

22 points by abeppu 2y ago

abeppu 2y ago
Not addressed in the article is why a satellite-based internet service makes sense for a building in a city that presumably has ready access to more conventional high-speed internet services.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Marketing and product placement. If you weren’t entertained by the Tesla sales event, you have another opportunity.
  - EA-3167 2y ago
    Considering the impact all of this advertising has had on Tesla sales and stock, I'd be very worried if I worked for SpaceX right now.
    - voxic11 2y ago
      SpaceX isn't a public company, and they get most of their money from government contracts so I think they will do quite well.
gnabgib 2y ago
Small discussion (20 points, 15 hours ago, 12 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43395411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43395411 Related White House to overhaul $42.5B internet plan – likely to Elon Musk's advantage (27 points, 13 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43268228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43268228
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
lenerdenator 2y ago
I'm sure that there was an extensive, open, and fair contracting process that led to this service being installed, and that the American taxpayer is getting the best bang-for-their-buck with regards to this urgently-needed upgrade to the White House telecoms systems.
- explain 2y ago
  Considering it was provided for free, yes, probably the best bang-for-their-buck.
  - lenerdenator 2y ago
    There's no such thing as a free lunch. What's the angle?
    - exceptione 2y ago
      Yup. Privatizing both the state and the government. This data connection is worth billions. Just see all the coin scams from the White House and market manipulation. Crime in plain sight. On a general note, it is quite dangerous that people still are completely blinded by years of "us-vs-them" and all kinds of binary belief traps. There is thundering amount of signals that the things which are happening are not quite normal. And yet.. This should put to rest any notion that you can drown the public in lies and vitriol as part of "free speech". It kills people's ability to perceive reality and renders them unable to judge things on scales of civility, lawfulness, constructive behavior, ethics etc. Instead, you get them to excuse all kinds of crimes against law and humanity, as long as they think they smell the musk of "their own pack", which has been defined as "owning the libs, hate towards transgenders/lgbt/foreigners" and other kinds of cultist/tribal feelings.
explain 2y ago
> Trump administration officials claimed that “some areas of the property could not get cell service,” according to the Times, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the Starlink project as intended “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.”
Finnucane 2y ago
"Only apps that meet GSA’s security and privacy standards are allowed." Given that they're firing all the people who actually know what that means, that's not real reassuring.
quantified 2y ago
Won't be any backdoor access to the White House communications opened up here.
- Nextgrid 2y ago
  Given the amount of corruption currently happening I don't think a technical solution is required.
  - steego 2y ago
    Seeing how we’re only a few months in, I think you’re wrong. I can see their desire to circumvent the firewalls and monitoring infrastructure because it’s too complicated and/or they don’t know who they can trust yet.
    - Nextgrid 2y ago
      But on a purely technical level, doesn't TLS make all these concerns obsolete anyway?
      - steego 2y ago
        It doesn’t. Many governments block TLS connections directly between a client and an external website. Instead, they’ll install a custom root certificate and all connections and intercept traffic, using the government root certificate for each TLS connection instead of the external website’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection
        Nextgrid 2y ago
        It still means that only whoever has the private key corresponding to that certificate can intercept and decrypt the traffic, so a third-party like Starlink should not be able to.
        2y ago
LinuxBender 2y ago
Being overly generous they are probably planning in anticipation of the global internet and power being nullified after some wartime escalation. They also issued satellite phones to key members of congress and staff a little while back. If by some bizarre chance I am right what VLF/HF frequencies and modulation do we all want to meet on? Chess over morse code or would Battleship© be more apropos?

22 points by abeppu 2y ago

Not addressed in the article is why a satellite-based internet service makes sense for a building in a city that presumably has ready access to more conventional high-speed internet services.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Marketing and product placement. If you weren’t entertained by the Tesla sales event, you have another opportunity.
- EA-3167 2y ago
  Considering the impact all of this advertising has had on Tesla sales and stock, I'd be very worried if I worked for SpaceX right now.
  - voxic11 2y ago
    SpaceX isn't a public company, and they get most of their money from government contracts so I think they will do quite well.

gnabgib 2y ago

Small discussion (20 points, 15 hours ago, 12 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43395411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43395411 Related White House to overhaul $42.5B internet plan – likely to Elon Musk's advantage (27 points, 13 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43268228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43268228

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

lenerdenator 2y ago

I'm sure that there was an extensive, open, and fair contracting process that led to this service being installed, and that the American taxpayer is getting the best bang-for-their-buck with regards to this urgently-needed upgrade to the White House telecoms systems.

explain 2y ago
Considering it was provided for free, yes, probably the best bang-for-their-buck.
- lenerdenator 2y ago
  There's no such thing as a free lunch. What's the angle?
  - exceptione 2y ago
    Yup. Privatizing both the state and the government. This data connection is worth billions. Just see all the coin scams from the White House and market manipulation. Crime in plain sight. On a general note, it is quite dangerous that people still are completely blinded by years of "us-vs-them" and all kinds of binary belief traps. There is thundering amount of signals that the things which are happening are not quite normal. And yet.. This should put to rest any notion that you can drown the public in lies and vitriol as part of "free speech". It kills people's ability to perceive reality and renders them unable to judge things on scales of civility, lawfulness, constructive behavior, ethics etc. Instead, you get them to excuse all kinds of crimes against law and humanity, as long as they think they smell the musk of "their own pack", which has been defined as "owning the libs, hate towards transgenders/lgbt/foreigners" and other kinds of cultist/tribal feelings.

explain 2y ago

> Trump administration officials claimed that “some areas of the property could not get cell service,” according to the Times, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt describing the Starlink project as intended “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on the complex.”

Finnucane 2y ago

"Only apps that meet GSA’s security and privacy standards are allowed." Given that they're firing all the people who actually know what that means, that's not real reassuring.

quantified 2y ago

Won't be any backdoor access to the White House communications opened up here.

Nextgrid 2y ago
Given the amount of corruption currently happening I don't think a technical solution is required.
- steego 2y ago
  Seeing how we’re only a few months in, I think you’re wrong. I can see their desire to circumvent the firewalls and monitoring infrastructure because it’s too complicated and/or they don’t know who they can trust yet.
  - Nextgrid 2y ago
    But on a purely technical level, doesn't TLS make all these concerns obsolete anyway?
    - steego 2y ago
      It doesn’t. Many governments block TLS connections directly between a client and an external website. Instead, they’ll install a custom root certificate and all connections and intercept traffic, using the government root certificate for each TLS connection instead of the external website’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection
      - Nextgrid 2y ago
        It still means that only whoever has the private key corresponding to that certificate can intercept and decrypt the traffic, so a third-party like Starlink should not be able to.
        2y ago

LinuxBender 2y ago

Being overly generous they are probably planning in anticipation of the global internet and power being nullified after some wartime escalation. They also issued satellite phones to key members of congress and staff a little while back. If by some bizarre chance I am right what VLF/HF frequencies and modulation do we all want to meet on? Chess over morse code or would Battleship© be more apropos?