A Command Senior Chief is an E-8. She's been in the Navy for a long time, and was put in charge of a lot of enlisted people. She was very much aware of the comsec and opsec problems with installing an unauthorized satellite communications device. If she put her career, ship, and shipmates at risk for earlier scores on sports, I'm sure that there was betting going on, and she and her cohorts were making money off of the benefit of those early scores. She's a modern-day Biff Tannen with a space-age sports almanac.
I admittedly know nothing about how the navy works. But if she's willing to spend that much money and take that much risk on the setup, there's got to be a financial intake somewhere to cover those expenses - and my first thought was gambling on those sports. Especially with it being a private network, as the rest of the gamblers aboard likely didn't know that the "select few" had early access to the scores.
Betting placement always closes at gametime, regardless of live coverage. You're confusing this story with the 1980 sci-fi war film "The Final Countdown".
@@BerzerkaDurk A Navy NCO was demoted after it was discovered (by a Civ contractor ) a Starlink (and a WiFi network) was secretly placed on a Warship for her own entertainment, to watch movies. Q: Why isn’t there a crew member (s) assigned to counter intelligence, signals opsec sniffing for rouge signals? Simply running WireShark on a monitor screen, with an alert script would be enough. Anyone can do that
Steve, starlink satellite dishes are not reception only devices They are two way and in fact in order to keep them synced up with the moving satellites they have to transmit their location to those satellites, Any unauthorized radio frequency transmissions from a military ship unmask that ship's location or existence. So this was a security breach on multiple levels, transmission of ship location for satellite matching, transmitting in general, And then whatever messages are being sent up to the satellites and through the internet. That's three security breaches.
Ding ding ding! It broadasts their precise location to any enemies in the area. It put every life on that ship at risk, there should be jail time for this type of (colloquial) treason.
Please supply me with any documentation that the antenna is transmitting its position and why. Not one GPS device is transmitting its position; the receiving algorithm knows what satellites are in view, and that's all they need to function.
Starshield is the military version of Starlink. Starlink's customer ground dish has AESA with beam forming tech, hence it's useful in the Ukranian-Russian conflict. Starlink has mass produced AESA communication dish. Northrop Grumman was selected as a partner for SpaceX's Starshield. The former four-star general Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who previously ran U.S. Northern Command, is the vice president for SpaceX's Special Programs Group. Any transmit capable device needs proper authorization.
As a former Naval Officer, (Pilot), I can not believe this Senior Chief is not being subject to a general court martial and discharged. Lying to the Captain? How is she still in the service? WTH has happened to the Navy I served in? As an Officer I was subject to high standards and paid dearly when I broke those rules and standards, but I can tell you I never lied to my Commanding Officer and am proud to have an honorable discharge. My offense was FAR less severe than what this Senior Chief (E-8, I was a Lieutenant, O-3) committed. I am appalled by this and the Navy’s lenient response.
My 1st Chief was a Senior Chief and he got caught fucking an E-3 while he was married right after his 3rd dui in 4 years. He didn't even get demoted, just shipped off to another command. And that was in 2004. And I heard all kinds of stories about what they got away in past. Once you hit E-7 in the Navy, you are nearly untouchable.
You know he was a pilot because he will tell you right after he tells you his name. Hahahaha thanks for your service Sir. I was at NAS Meridian… you even been there?
Heck, as a retire First class, that was my thought too. I retired 19 years ago and if I had had the tech and done this, I would be under a military brig.
sdcoinshooter, Don't Forget "Endangering a Navy Ship/command"! Hackers "China/Russia" could gain access to "Location Information". During time of war the ship could be targeted and destroyed!
I’m retired Navy. There is a saying in the Navy, “Loose lips sink ships”. A war ship has to have the ability to go dark while moving around the world. Controlling communications to and from the ship is very important during a military operation. An unauthorized installation of a “tracking device” is a severe breach of security.
its not 1944 anymore, its 2024 ... 'they" have satellites too, and nicer ones that can see ships !! ....you don't need radio frequencies anymore ... world technology isn't going to stop because you retired
@@JPs-q1o - Whether its work, relationships, this navy story, or whatever is going on... Like the alien said in one of my favorite sci-fi's, "Deceit and Treachery is the way of the Human Female." Examples Eve Delilah Jezebel, the woman who wanted John the baptist head on a platter. OK... Make your case that this is wrong? I'll wait LOL Any man with ex's can back up this assertion.
I was a submariner in the Navy. OPSEC is paramount. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her and all of the chiefs involved should be court martialed, stripped of their rank and reduced to E1 and given BCDs.
She was on an LCS, they have no mission. They are modular ships that the work packages haven't been built for. If you look this one up it has been doing only meet and greet in the south pacific, so it was boring. What she did is wrong, it is also wrong to half fund ships and expect people to take it serious.
@@Unknown-qp9ur Yeah God forbid we expect a Senior Chief Petty Officer to take the mission seriously, follow orders, set an example, uphold the core values and comport herself with honor.
@SINDRIKARL1 she's female, they will do the minimum they have to as far as discipline goes. I served in the Navy when they started putting women aboard ships in 1978. Trust me on this.
She should have been dishonorably discharged. Lying.....can't be trusted to follow the rules, dis-respect of upper command. I wouldn't want this person in charge of anything. She needs to be made an example of, to help restore respect for command.
I am not a navy guy, but I am an IT professional, and have worked infosec jobs before. I have no words to explain how monumentally stupid and insane this is! IT IS A MAJOR BREACH OF SECURITY! No could be about it. IT IS. If nothing else it was giving away the ship's location to unauthorized 3rd parties. The way starlink works the satellites need to know where the terminal is and keep track of its location. That's why at first you could only use it at the address you registered it, and that's why in a certain conflict a certain government had to ask Elon to extend the geograpical area where they could operate so their troops could use it behind enemy lines. I would imagine that Starlink has information about the networks and terminals used by the military cordoned off and secured internally. But if she was using a commercial terminal without informing Starlink to implement security around it, then most likely any first line support agent could have had access to her customer information and the terminal's geographical location. It would be trivial to put them together and conclude what most likely a navy officer's terminal is doing in the middle of the ocean. I imagine a lot of embassies would love to pay for that information. Not to mention that now the navy has to wonder if sports and TV information was ALL that was being transmitted through that network. Maybe some encrypted Signal or Telegram messages were sent too. There's almost no way to know, but you bet your ass they'll do everything they can to find out. This is beyond insane. Wow.
The DoD has their own Starlink contract for a military oriented version of the service. It's encrypted twice, then allowed to exit the enclave, as is standard for DoD traffic. The network is entirely segregated for military usage. But worse, just transmitting anything gives away a warship's location, as the ocean is notable for its lack of transmitters. It's nothing to just toss a beam rider down a bearing to a transmission source and make it go away in a moment of fire, brimstone and thunder. And I did military information assurance, if just plugging in an unauthorized device is a major no-no, standing up your own network and network access point is beyond the call of big time no-no. Right up there with the idiot that actually bridged a classified network with the unclassified network and added a remote access point in order to administer both - promptly getting his clearance revoked and an immediate escort from the forward deployed base.
Since she clearly lied about the Starlink even after being caught, I wonder if she wasn't up to something more nefarious than texting, streaming video, and sports scores.
The lies were a coverup. She knew it broke the rules and didn't want to get in trouble for it. That's how most coverups go down. (And as I said in another comment, sports scores and videos were a side benefit: This was absolutely so that folks could stay in communication with their families.)
I remember when kids showed you could identify US base locations in Afghanistan and Iraq by public information from smart watches the troops were wearing. That is not specifically the same as this situation, the point is digital data security and signal broadcast is critical information. What she did placed her entire crew at risk, I’m surprised she wasn’t removed from the military
heh for 7 months the mercenaries in Ukraine were taking selfies with their cell phones and providing the Russians with excellent targeting data before they got the hint.
Considering the seriousness of this, reduction in rank one rank is just a slap on the wrist. Not only did she make a major OPSEC violation, but she also had her entire Chief Mess involved, told them to also lie to the CO. Should have been reduced to E6, brig time, and dishonorable discharged. Of course anyone that has been in the navy knows that “discipline” is different for those who wear Khaki uniforms.
Not sure if double reduction in rank is possible, even at special court marital which is what was probaly done to get the reduction for a senior enlisted. Removing a frocked rank and then reducing is usually how it is done if at all.
Dave, if I am understanding correctly, the monthly subscription charge was charged to a group credit card, suggesting it may be a Navy card and theft of federal funds.
In order to remove anchores from a chief it takes an act of congress. I am guess Big Navy wanted to keep this a secret for national security, and avoid embarrassment
@@Bear-cm1vl misuse of navy funds pales in comparison to putting a radio beacon atop the ship loudly broadcasting their position to any enemies in the area. Every life was put at risk.
As a Navy veteran the fact that she wasn’t dishonorably discharged or at least less than honorable discharge is infuriating. Putting the ships security in danger. I know 40 years ago she would have been in the brig on bread and water, don’t know if they still do that now. Being only demoted to Chief Petty Officer from Senior Chief Petty officer, still leaves her in an important leadership role for the enlisted sailors in her charge. How can they have any respect or confidence in her” leadership “?
The sense of entitlement that the former senior chief had is unbelievable. Yeah let's put a big target on our ship so we can watch ESPN while out at sea. And they lie about it! Life aboard a Navy ship is not meant to be a pleasure cruise. On top of that they kept the WiFi to themselves and did not make it available to the lower ranks. When I was is the Army the phrase was not rank has it's privileges, but Rank has it's responsibilities. Greedy selfish, and in this case downright STUPID CPO's are the ruin of a good ship. If this was a lower enlisted there would have been a court martial, reduction in grade and a Bad Conduct Discharge. They only busted this CPO down on rank to sweep it under the rug and let her retire. She does not deserve a retirement check!
Seeing as she comparatively got a slap on the wrist for what she did and how serious that could of been I'd say she's showing rank does have it's privileges.
"did not make it available to the lower ranks" I think they were running a sports betting ring, where the crew wouldn't know the results until the next port, but the conspirators had instant access to the results. If so, I wonder how likely one of the "lower ranks" is to come forward and confess to being taken advantage of. Since she took the risk of paying the $1000 monthly bill with a military budget, I would assume they were not making very much. Probably a few hundred bucks a month per each of conspirators. Call it $10k/month total?
So a Master Chief was only demoted one rank for lying, inappropriate use of funds, and installing unapproved network devices? I am sure JAG could come up with more charges. How about being busted to seaman, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, 1 year in the Brig, and a Dishonorable Discharge or a Bad Conduct Discharge. The extremely low standards in the Military & Government is disgusting.
Disgusting! She should have been immediately removed from duty and then put in prison. Everyone on the ship was in danger of destruction! How much of taxpayer’s money would it cost to pay for a new ship and pay out for every killed person?
"Let me explain something to you. Many good men and women lost their lives aboard this ship because someone wanted a faster computer to make life easier..." Adama
@@AHDBification exactly what I did, reported it. Not worthy of commenting to without a sock full of bricks. What's astounding is, as a senior NCO, she knew damned well better and had to know the regulations in order to gain promotions. Annual IA training is mandatory for all networked computer users as well. I'm astounded that this NCO survived 10 seconds in the goatlocker!
So, to answer the question at 3:30, they'll actually found that the wifi didn't reach to their berthings well enough, and actually put up repeaters and signal boosters around the ship. As a USN Sailor of 18 years this story floored me. Not just the gall, but the risk they put the ship at. Absolutely disgusting.
"STINKY" is a default WiFi SSID for some generations of Starlink routers. Default settings are easy to change and suggests additional weakness in the network.
How is it possible she and her cohorts only received a slap on the wrist ? That Starlink and wi-fi connections should've lit that ship like a radio station. And their own electronics couldn't see those spurious bands? Stinky indeed. I hope they checked a little deeper into these brain dead actions.
The Starlink signal is beamformed from a phased array, not omnidirectional. You'd have to be standing between the dish and the satellite it's talking to to pick it up.
@@pyrioncelendilTrue. But there's also a potential security risk right there, in that the Starlink system and anyone monitoring it knows exactly where each user's system is located.
@pyrioncelendil It is not a laser. It has sidelobes and backlobes. It should have been easily detectable from anywhere on the ship. My bet is that she kept it completely off when not in use, and never used it during EMCONN conditions. It would have been REALLY stupid to do otherwise.
It could be broken into by a foreign intelligence service and used as a remote radio relay/listening device snooping on the ship's systems. Bad juju all around. 😢
Yeah exactly And if she was on Any secure net work on board the ship and then connected to the starling and someone gained access to that oh, there would be huge huge problems what an idiot it’s like the enlisted Navy men taking pictures of the nuclear submarine, which can be considered treason.🤦♂️
Considering how SpaceX treats China and refuses to allow Starshield (starlink for US Military) to operate in locations claimed by China, I don't think this is that much more of a security problem.
Getting busted one paygrade is the Navy treating her differently. She should be in the brig. She put everyone at risk. She was the senior non-commissioned officer on the ship. This is disgusting and embarrassing to all Sailors and we Navy vets. Shame on her and the Commanding Officer.
It's gonna heavily affect her pay and pension, she'll probably have an exit a few years down the line and will ride a desk in the meantime. At the very least her career is de facto over.
Just Looked her and she was a Command Senior Chief, similar to Command Master Chief and Chief of the Boat (Submarines) which meant she was highest ranking enlisted person on the ship. This make it worse because she probably used her position to make it happen and keep it hidden. Also another thing that makes it worse is she has a back ground in Navy Intelligence so she should have known better about unauthorized radio transmissions.
Also, the XO was "discharged from the service" just a few months ago under vague circumstances. I know it's a new littoral ship, but something just isn't right with the crew.
@@Times_Ticking Saw that and I was thinking the same thing. Actions like this and of the Senior Chief aren't usually isolated. IMO indicates issues with the chain of command.
"she should have known better about unauthorized radio transmissions" I figure she knew better and just 1) didn't expect to get caught and 2) didn't expect there to be much of a bruhaha over it if she was and 3) figured the Chiefs' good-old-boy network would close ranks and protect her. In fact it was probably the Chiefs' network that kept her from being cashiered with a DD. In the Canoe Club the officers are the head but the Chiefs are the neck.
It's not only the risk of revealing the ships movement, it's the potential for use of unauthorized RF frequencies that may interfere with critical equipment. Bad time to find out in the middle of battle that a stupid Starlink inferes with combat capability
Starlink is being offically deployed on USN ships. The key word is "unauthorized". The official Sat dish installer discovered the unauthorized Starlink dish. Do it by the book.
Steve, I have been watching you for about a year now. I love the way you explain things. You seam like a humble guy. This past year I've went through my first lawsuit. (1.8 million) I was the defendant. It was ruled frivolous. Some of your videos gave me such hope some was just like wow I can't believe some people would fight such a case. But I just want to say thanks for giving hope that the system does work. If your ever in knoxville tn look me up. I owe you a lunch at the least. Love the content. Keep it up.
I work in the marine industry, primarily yachts. The old system is Vsat which connects to the internet at less than 10Mbps and costs over $10,000 to purchase and up to $10,000 a month to subscribe. Starlink has much higher speeds >200Mbps for a fraction of the cost of Vsat. I see many vessels switching over to Starlink. As far as a warship; Starlink can be tracked and is a security risk, as stated by Elon when Starlink was given to Ukraine.
Former military here, and only speaking for my experience. Yes, there are people that know their ship/installation very well. As a matter of fact, there are even more that are responsible for spotting things out of the ordinary (guard posting, inspections, maintenance, etc.). There's two issues here. First, lower ranks tend to cover for each other when they can (e.g., E4 mafia) and that includes jr and mid-level officers. Second, it's usually the average recruit that doesn't necessarily know enough, or care enough, to report it as unusual. In this case, if they did I would guess they were told it's above their pay grade and don't worry about it. After it was found, they were probably asked why they didn't report it and simply said they didn't know it wasn't normal, didn't see it, or did and was told to ignore it - the end result being that they don't get in trouble. Everyone knows better than to stick their neck out and risk problems when doing the opposite will have no effect. It is a little less common when you're in a war zone, but it does still happen even then. I'm reading into it a little, but in this case it sounds like she had conspirators that used the link. Likely, she included anyone with any responsibility for spotting foreign equipment or signals so they wouldn't tell anyone. That's why a civilian (who I'm guessing found the signal first, not the equipment) spotted it and not military. Those conspirators were likely given non-judicial punishment in lieu of Court Marshal, which is why no one heard about them.
I know nothing about warships, but I would think that it wouldn't really be possible to install a rogue internet device like a Starlink without having some help from the crew. The dish is typically placed outside (unless they could use it through a window) and a cable from the dish to a receiver would be run into the interior. I'm surprised none of the installation wasn't noticed sooner.
I believe it possible that everyone knew. It had to be visible to operate. There were no doubt a fairly large amount of conspirators and people can't keep their mouths shut. If the civilian knew it was out of place,who didn't?
In general I agree with you however when I was an E4 we would try to take care of our own issues but something like this that is a legitimate danger? We would take care of it, not let it continue.
I spent 4 years in the Air Force and most of the remainder of my 40+ years working career as a civilian DoD contractor. I can tell you with very little doubt that for someone to believe they can get away with something like this, they most likely are simply following the lead of others who have already gotten away with it.
For those non-Navy people, here is a breakdown. 3 huge issues here, COMSEC, OPSEC, and Rank/Leadership. Navy ships really don't like to tell the bad guys, where they are. Think the ole WW2 phrase, "Loose lips, sink ships". Bad guys knowing a ship's location allows them to set traps or plan the engagement to their advantage. It isn't just this ship alone either. This type of ship is designed to work in groups, so you are giving away the location of a small fleet possibly. All Navy shipboard communications are usually encrypted to some degree. Yes, they have phones on board that you can call home on, but that all runs through secure satellites and security. It isn't the WIFI that gives away the ship; it is the down-link from Starlink which probably had minimal security. That can be tracked or narrow the area the ship would be operating in. This is all why, you can't call home and be say, "Hey mom, I'm going to be in such and such port on this date." That would be a HUGE COMSEC/OPSEC breach. Part 2 will address the other issue.
"Man aloft do not rotate or radiate any electronic equipment while man is aloft." That was what I was required to say over the 1MC back in the late 70s when I stood watch on the USS Prairie (AD-15).
I don't understand how she wasn't court martialed. Bringing any unauthorized digital communication device aboard a US Navy combat vessel is an extremely dangerous and, whether wittingly or not, traitorous act. I'd look into her personal finances for Chinese or Russian front companies making deposits into her bank accounts.
She wasn't prosecuted fairly because of DEI, Senior SNCOs are still subject to NJPs. Furthermore NJPs can in fact demote, fine, etc. And usually reserved for minor offenses. Witnessed a LtCol do it to a Gunny. For assaulting a subordinate. far less than such a severe offense as endangering an entire Ship & crew.
As someone who used and worked with Navy comm systems and other “radio” systems, I don’t understand how she thought they would get away with this. OPSEC and EMCON went right out of the window with this one. Also a Senior Chief being demoted to Chief is no small thing. Her career is over.
It should be jail for 20 years for putting all those lives at risk. Starlink broadcasts your precise location as part of its handshake with satellites and anyone in the area would know exactly where they are.
@@danielweston9188 She was the Command Senior Chief (top enlisted position) of a LCS (small crew 53-88 total sailors) and had the whole Chief's Mess in her pocket. I'm betting only a fraction of what happened was released to the public.
Is this right? Starlink is not the problem. It is being installed on ships as part of the SEA2 program. The problem is that it was not under the scrutiny and control of the command chain.
The key word in this story is "unauthorized ". My son is a communications officer on a different USN warship and they received authorization to install Starlink on their ship. It is a great morale booster for the crew to be able to send/receive email and watch tv and movies when not on duty.
Authorized is important. That means the command knows about it and can control it. Turn it off when the mission dictates. Turn it back on when reasonable. This Senior Chump would’ve just let this thing ping continuously even as missiles were inbound. She is the very definition of an insider threat and should be prosecuted, jailed, and stripped of her rank and pension.
If they are using it then they are not lawfully using it. Elon made it clear af that no military is to use Starlink. Any military base, plane, ship, whatever that uses it is in violation of the terms of service. Elon doesn't want his product associated with war and conflict which is exactly what every military is associated with.
@@markseabolt5959 Technically she was the highest ranking NCO on her ship. She is part of ship command. She literally had a navy credit card she could bill thousands of dollars to without requesting approval beforehand.
@@danielweston9188 They only turn off stuff like that if there is a news blackout for when someone is killed or injured. Maybe if it was a spy ship or in combat they would turn it off. But it's not like there is a light switch to do it, individual people who control each internet hotspot would be tasked to enforce blackout.
I just read the full Navy Times article. It’s good reporting by the way. This was soooooo bad. Worse than Steve’s (very good) summary could quite convey. The levels of deception, the hurling of others under the bus, the gross sabotage of the ship, its morale, and naval discipline is stunning. Not to mention it corrupted an entire chief’s mess. How this person could remain with any rank or authority over others is amazing.
25 year retired Navy SCPO here, I'm really discussed with action of the Chiefs mess aboard this ship! I served on the aviation side in helo squadrons aboard these types of ships and you are completely correct that most anyone aboard that ship should have been able to look up and say what's that, and what is it doing there cause it doesn't belong aboard this ship, especially the CO, XO, Chief Engineer, TAO, and COM Officer, anyone really. Not to mention the network itself, anyone with any type of smart device could open network connections available and say there it is, don't tell me it doesn't exist cause I can see it does. Things must have really changed in the 20 years since I retired cause my Comand Master Chief, or one of the Chiefs in the mess probably would have been the ones who discovered the network, not the ones installing it. They all should have had the book thrown at them! However with that in mind, in my day if the Chiefs Mess had did something like this, no one would have ever noticed, been able to track, and would never had been to figure it out, cause, back then the Chiefs Mess was the experts in Navy!
The starlink connection itself isn't secured to the standards of the military If the starlink network was compromised it would be more than easy to get the exact location of the ship as the starlink mesh also acts as a gps network due to the number of nodes
@@Sylusssss I wonder how easy it would be to discern between the Starlink being placed on a warship vs being placed on a yacht. I guess if there was a compromise, someone who did enough digging could determine something from the content of the text messages that were sent could determine that they were coming from a warship.
Holy Crap! Dude, those guys are just MAD CRAZY about Radio Emissions of any and every type! For good reason too... it paints the ship as a target! I was at sea once in a war game on a carrier. We set zebra and secured EVERYTHING. You turn off all electronics devices and pull their batteries and unplug it, close all light locker doors and secure all bulkhead doors... going electronic warfare quiet. Didnt last long. Damn bombers came screaming in and we were informed we were nailed by a flood of missiles. The air was a mess of fighters and bombers. We were killed. A few hours later as they were talking aobut what our weakness was we found out that they had radio noise from the ship which nailed us down to the map. The even told us exactly where it was - down to the foot! Showed us where it was on a map of the carrier. When we opened up the room and went to that location they found a tape deck. Somebody had opened it up so it stopped playing, but left the tape in the machine, which left the motor running. The motor was making the electrical noise which Red Team spotted with their electronic warfare gear. Yah... they are serious about this crap, better believe it. Oh, they dont even need to see the dish. They will spot the wires. The wiring is regularly inspected for regulations. The above is an example of how quiet that ship needs to be across the entire spectrum. Noise can be created simply by have two inappropriate wires next to each other. Yes, the ship is known not just to some, but to many. So is the wiring.
There is an old naval saying, If it moves salute it, if it doesn't move, polish it, if you can't polish it, paint it. The paint chosen is almost always gray, just like a Starlink terminal. So it arrived perfectly camouflaged for the naval environment, and nobody not running a spectrum analyzer, probably not a common naval instrument, would have been likely to notice it. It may even be that the people who might have been operating the EW suite, who probably have spectrum analyzers, are petty officers and in on the secret.
@El_Peto Judgement call. A bad one in this case. But the reality is that the POs likely simply jumped Naval institutional inertia. There is no good reason not to have an authorized satellite Internet connection on warships (which might be shut down under circumstances when it poses a special danger). It is, after all just another transceiver, with a low probability of interception at any significant range.
Honestly, considering how many devices these days want some kind of internet connection for 'updates' I'm not sure if I can blame anyone for saying 'ya no we need to know what that device is actually doing first'.
One of my favorite things about the Steve Lehto Channel is that I can go for a month or so without watching any SL videos but then I can binge watch to catch up.
Steve when you are talking about endangering a crew, a ship, a ships mission, and any formation that ship may be part of it to call it a SAFETY issue is a huge understatement.
"Aloft time" - someone was going high on the masts, usually you need to power off all other radios / radars etc. Takes a request to do, because the Quarterdeck has to make announcements every 15 minutes or so to remind people not to emit the affected equipment. Command Senior chief - as stated below, she was the highest enlisted person on the ship, usually a CO / XO advisor on matters with enlisted personnel. USS Manchester - an LCS ship (explains - small crew, Command Senior Chief), probably an LCDR for CO. (Former LT USN).
I imagine qualified command staff aren't easy to come by. Demote her, give her a chance to rise in the ranks again and save that institutional knowledge.
Also, my world. In my world she would have been booted from the Navy with a Big Chicken Dinner for several other charges. Article 92 for one and she lied (I forget the charge for that one) three times, and she "stole" from the ship. She would have had to pull "permits" to have the electronics shut down overhead so they could install it unless they did it in port on a weekend when no one was around (happens to skirt the safeties someties) but the ship has an infotainment system installed already but it is controlled and they didnt want people to know what they were doing.
Could that be Steve’s mistake or whomever he copied in the title. She is enlisted but is listed as a noncommissioned officer (NCO). Maybe that is the confusing part to the person who came up with the title because she does have people reporting to her. Whoever made the title is unaware of the distinction between enlisted and officers.
Last year on a sailboat (4 people) we operated a standard Starlink Dishy from SE Asia to Japan (Taiwan it was blocked) all the way across to Canada. That same dishy since then, is operating on my boat for $150/month. At sea Starlink charged us something like $2 per 50gB (the biggest draw was all the automatic nonsense on our phones.) Comms on a military ship are a serious issue. Off Taiwan we spotted a large vessel approaching rapidly. No AIS signal (all commercial and large vessels are required, worldwide, to send out a signal of position, heading, speed.) Turned out to be the flagship of the Taiwanese Navy. Starlink is two way. Up and down. So satellite signal up and down and WiFi to and from. A Wifi network can't (normally) be detected from a hundred yards away. So that's not a security risk. The up/down satellite communication signal for a Starlink is not that powerful -- but it could give the vessel's position away. I think the problem the NCO got into was embezzling the funds and lying about it. Otherwise, this is in the long hallowed U.S. military tradition known in WWII as being a Dog Robber, now a days: a Fixer. Clever, sneaky.... yeah, you shouldn't have done this.... but someone who can cook up a scheme like this can figure out a lot of other things as well. (I'm a fixer, fix it guy myself. I don't lie, so I've been told to 'cut it out,' 'WTF?' very often, 'well... don't do it again.' and often as not, ""Oh, that did work." Or 'That was you?' And the Russian Navy has probably figured out how to detect Starlink signals from as far away as technically possible. A lot of the Ukrainian drone boat bombs used Starlink so they could be steered into Russian ships. The Russians to date have lost 26 significant vessels, including large missile cruisers, to these boat bombs. And the way to find out who on board owns the illegal dishy is to just disconnect the cable and reconnect it a few times. Then just wait to see who comes to check the connection. Sunday afternoon in the US would probably be the best time to do this.
Steve: I was in USN and yes, there are people of many technical disciplines, both Navy personnel and civilian contractors who become familiar with aspects of the ships that they have worked on. That said, regardless of who discovered the unauthorized dish,the answer is a resounding YES! An unauthorized dish of any sort is potentially an extreme security risk to the ship and its crew. Starlink is a civilian satellite communications provider, used widely by ocean ships and other roff-grid connections that require internet service. By default, each mobile client is continuously tracked to provide uninterrupted communication with their satellite with the best “view” of the signal from the client. What this means is that Starlink does, by default, track all ships that use its services, so anyone who hacks into Starlink’s systems absolutely would gain the ability to track any client ship on that server! That SCPO was very lucky if she was not imprisoned as a result of endangering a US warship and its crew.
Sailors are not allowed to use microwave ovens aboard ship when in critical situations trying to avoid detection. It doesn’t take much of a signal to be detected even from far away. Putting a Starlink dish on a ship, and installing an unvetted unauthorized WiFi system aboard is like installing a geo nautical tracker on the entire crew for Chinese, Russians, and all bad players out there to see! And eventually, destroy. The broad collusion by the Chiefs aboard should result either in demotion or in their early retirement. That Senior Chief got off easily on a mere one step demotion. The Navy’s gotten really soft and lackadaisical.
The NAVY knows everything. Local girl went missing/ran away the same day I drove to my next duty station almost the same time I cheeked out of PSD. I drove from Tennessee to Mountain View CA. (This was in the 80s pre cell) over that week. I arrived at Moffat and when I was was checking in base police came in and started asking me about this girl I was traveling with, where was she etc. etc. etc. I had no idea what they were talking about. But the fact I checked out of PSD Millington around the same time she went missing made me a suspect. I had no idea who she was etc. but I left to drive cross country the same time she went missing, They wanted to talk to me... The NAVY knows and will find out
FYI according to a report I read all chiefs involved received non-judicial punishments (NJP) via Commodore's Mast and the Command Senior Chief from the story was court-martialed. TBH I think the light punishments are probably due to the Navy's and the military's in general bad retention and recruitment rates.
Steve, this story reminds me of a situation where i working aircraft maintenance for a major airline at a big city in CA. A coworker moonlighting at direct TV as an installer. One night he and a couple of coworkers took our boom truck an installed a direct rv receiver on roof of the terminal and routed coaxial cable into out break room. We were enjoying our hook-up for a few months when finally someone from the airports came scooping around about who authorized to receive antenna installation on the roof. It was all down hill after that. No crime committed . We just had to remove the equipment from the building.
20yr Retired ET here -- There are no words this from a Senior Chief, but then I was a junior E-3/E-4/E-5 during Walker-Whitworth so I guess Disappointment is the only word that fits. The phrase "long, hot summers in Kansas", and "don't drop the soap in the showers" would also fit
All the chiefs (or almost all of them) were in on it and paying for the service. She went to GCM and the other chiefs went to Commodores Mast. How they were not charged with conduct unbecoming and get BCD have know idea! The OPSEC breach alone is worth prison.
She should have been dishonorably discharged for the lies alone. That is a serious offense. She put her ship and its crew at risk and then she lied to her commanding officers about it. If you can't be trusted, you should have no place in the military.
The installation. That device is basically a beacon shouting to the world, something's over here, look look look. These ships are supposed to be hard to detect.
Your question on “aloft”. Aloft is a safety procedure/set of conditions allowing for the safe work in and transit to precarious locations such as up the mast. To set aloft ships will tag out equipment such as radars in order to prevent them from spinning (and knocking a sailor down) or radiating and potentially harming a Sailor in their vicinity. Aloft can be set in various zones only affecting equipment where the Sailors will be working/transiting. The setting of aloft is fairly routine in port.
The people who'd normally spot it and report it ultimately report (on the enlisted side at least) to the NCO responsible for the problem. Even any junior officers who notice are likely to be referred to her to find out why it's there.
A JO is not likely to be in a position to notice. Those aloft who would notice it would most likely be enlisted, and they would likely report it to the work center sups or chiefs who were all in on it as apparently the whole thing was known about in the Chief's mess. It took a civilian contractor installed a Securelink dish in the same area to notice it and report it to someone who was not in on it.
Oh, my goodness!!! I had to watch the CC to hear what "Canadian robot lady" was saying. lol I thought she was saying "four strangers", when she was saying "forest rangers"! I really need to turn up my volume next time! 🤣
At 7:00 Steve. The Starlink system has to transmit information in order to receive any. IP/TCP is a two-way communications link. So, it would have been an unauthorized radio transmitter, regardless of any additional information the users may be sending.
Hopefully they were smart enough to keep it separate from the rest of the ships networks. Best case scenario is that they installed the starlink dish external and ran their own cable down to their personal router that broadcast the SSID for that wireless network and they used personal laptops or phones to access it. At least that way the internal ships networks are still air gapped from the starlink connection. Though I find it hard to believe there would be a good way to snake a cable down. It seems more likely that they setup a separate VLAN on the ships equipment. Starlink antenna plugs into a port on switch xyz that is configured for VLAN 333 (made up number) they then make sure that the VLAN is trunked down to a switch local to where they want their connection to be. Then configure a port on switch abc for VLAN 333 and connect in their Starlink router. While in theory this still keeps the starlink network separate from the rest of the ships networks, by being on the same physical equipment it is just one small configuration change away from being a massive security hole.
Back in 1980, I was a first-class (E-6) electronic technician aboard a U.S. Navy ship. I was in charge of the ship’s closed circuit TV system and also in charge of the electronic personal equipment safety program. The problem we had was that people would buy personal electronic equipment and sometimes it wasn’t compatible with the shipboard environment. Although the AC outlooks look the same as those ashore, they are wired differently and some equipment can present a hazard if plugged in. We would check out the personal equipment, advise the owner of its limitations, if the equipment was safe. If it was not safe, we would notify the owner and the XO who would write an official letter to whoever that service member bought the equipment from explaining that it was unsafe to use ownership and requesting that they refund the purchase price. The EW (electronic warfare) crew would periodically scan the ship for any unnecessary emissions. How they got that equipment on board and hid it so long is a mystery to me. 😂
When I was in Iraq our Brigade communications section set up a Local Area Network (as usual) but also set up some servers with downloaded DVD movies so the soldiers could watch movies and TV shows during a little down time. The library grew to become quite extensive. I'm sure it violated all kinds of regs but it was at least secure. Even the Brigade Commander watched Seinfeld reruns at 2 AM after a long day. No harm done. Our soldiers also bought internet hookups to their trailers they lived in from local internet providers. Now this I never understood. It seemed like a massive security issue to me. It was a practice done Iraq-wide and not unique to our unit. But when we had a KIA the commander was able to order the "plug to be pulled" so nobody could email home about the loss of a soldier until next of kin were notified. Not sure ow the commercial plug was pulled to al this trailer pods but it seemed to work.
This was most definitely not a low security risk, if you're wondering how unspeakably horrible this could have gone there's the unvetted and unknown human being given just about unlimited access to the systems of one of the most powerful multi-billion dollar weapon platforms in the world.....🤯..... and not only that real life nightmare of thought there's also the fact that for a couple months the US Navy had a back door to their systems that they had no idea about.
I’d love to see the billing details. My Starlink cost me about $500 for the antenna, and a mobile subscription is $150/month - somewhat less than the amounts quoted in the article.
Good. We had a server failure when I was a civilian programmer in the USAF, and the sergeant in charge of backups ... simply hadn't. He lost stripes nearly on the spot, and it took weeks to recreate the data. He somehow thought nobody really cared about that old (wasn't really) RS/6000.
I still work as a Navy Contractor and we hear some Navy-related scuttlebutt from time to time, and one of the things that went around my office is that what made this situation worse was the Command Senior Chief and the Chief's Mess knew they were doing something wrong because when the ship underwent an In-Service Inspection they removed the dish and related equipment prior to the inspection starting and then re-installed everything when the inspection ended and the ship was going back to sea.
The Chief Petty Officer and all of the senior NCOs who were aware of this security breach should have been discharged from the service with loss of all pay and benefits.
This is endemic throughout the service. They were not unhappy with the existing setup, they wanted to have their own network despite knowing this violated OPSEC. The fact that there were many chiefs involved highlights the loss of honor among my fellow chiefs. Sad. OSC(SW), retired.
This is hilarious! My son recently put this in at his cottage. They're fantastic! I thought it would be great to travel with one of these on cruise ships!
@@deilapakserrion9927 lmfao, that's what an enlisted PETTY OFFICER is called. I was one. lmfao As soon as you hit e4 you become an NCO... petty officer 3rd class, 2nd 1st etc.
A Senior Chief Petty Officer is a Non Comissioned Officer. While when someone says "officer" they usually are referring to a commissioned officer, the article is still technically correct. But no one in the Navy would use officer in that way.
I worked in secure communications in Air Force and Army. These Wi-Fi systems not only receive signal but also SEND signal to establish and maintain the satellite link. Serious, possibly deadly violation of comsec. It's like lighting a campfire on a battlefield at night. Could have simply asked for pre-authorization.
She was the Command Senior Enlisted Assistant. Was supposed to set the behavior standard fUSS MANCHESTER's enlisted personnel. She was also an Information Technology Specialist, so knew how to do this. She "went aloft" (climbed the main mast) with another chief to install the dish. There are multiple dishes and antennas on the mast so no one would notice it. Only the civilian tech would grasp what was going on. She also would have run cable from the antenna to repeaters inside the Chief's mess. Finally, her woes aren't over. She will be subject to an Administrative Separation Board forcing her to retire from the service. Hope this info helps.
This story has circumscribed the Earth seven times already, plus, has been to the Moon and back three times, and Steve still does a video on it. Keep the $$$$ rolling in folks.
You're right about the metal of the ship blocking the wifi signal. They probably used the cables that were already there that the authorized installer was going to use. They could then transmit the signal throughout the ship with 10:100 cat cables. They likely put wifi extenders on the ends of those cable so instead of having a hardwired connection that someone else could access, they used the wifi which can be password protected. I'm surprised they didn’t charge her and the other chiefs involved with espionage for installing a un authorized network which could be used to transmit ship's classified intel without oversight.
As a recently retired Pentester that specialised in radio and RF, working in mainly commercial organisations; you would be amazed at the “ingenuity” and “inventiveness” that some individuals would employ in order to get network connectivity outside of the corporate environment. For some this would be to access blocked content (sports, pr0n etc) whilst some were intended to support locker room and toilet stall cameras. WiFi is easier to find the client device, whilst broadcast (2.4 & 5GHz) tv/monitor repeaters were far more of a challenge. For one of the latter we needed to catch the person using this system, so I took some spider cobweb and dangled a dead fly in front of the camera lens. It didn’t take too long for the “system operator” to show up and remove the debris obstructing his view - that particular contractor actually got jail time for his actions.
To address the comment at 7:00 about only receiving signals, neither Starlink nor WiFi ever receive only. They both transmit constantly, and anyone who knows what to look for can easily track the ship down. In addition, the Starlink dish transmits its GPS coordinates to the satellites using, uh, whatever security Starlink devised. So now we have a private company getting real-time tracking for a Navy warship.
As you were saying there must be people who know this ship inside and out my thoughts immediately flashed to Scotty's statement that he knew everything about the Enterprise, as he turned around and smacked his head against the bulkhead.
Navy veteran here. Aloft time is when personnel go up on the main mast or other high areas of the ship in order to conduct preventive or corrective maintenance. They installed that antenna probably under the guise of performing some other maintenance in order to get the best positioning.
Not all senior Noncomms are brilliant. I have seen quite a few who were bull headed and stuck in the past. She probably thought she was emulating something she saw done by a senior NCO in her past but times and technology had changed and she didnt pick up on that. I was once in a unit in the 90s where the senior NCO ran a fleet of rental SUVs using the government credit card so we didnt have to go to the field in our HMMWVs. We also used a fancy repeater system with walkie talkies instead of the new frequency hopping radios which were hard to master an required layers of security when parked which was inconvenient. We always had a big learning curve whenever we deployed anywhere because we weren't used to using the radios or our vehicles. The battalion XO who was a major ordered it shut down so what did the senior sergeant major do? Ordered the commercial SUVs to be parked down at the company area so he wouldn't see them. Until he went to the field again and went ballistic. It continued long after that major left for his next assignment though - it was the 90s after all.
Before I retired, I got lit up for running a sharing server with movies, music, etc. at a forward location. The server was using 2/3 of the bandwidth on the base. The network administrator, who used the server himself, asked me quietly to limit it so we didn't overwhelm his network. I knew something was up when my laptop had been running at 100% for 14 hours straight while I was on duty! I had to set up a fan to help cool it and the external drive!
I remember , back in the 70's in Iceland, when we would get week old videos of games (baseball, football, etc) a week late and sit in the day room watching them on AFARTS. And there was always one stupid noob who forgot they were taped, and would bet on them.
I am a network security architect for a Fortune 500 company and for me I see the security risks all around this and it freaks me out! If someone in an office building did this I would have that person's job no matter who it is! This is a major security issue and could have led to a complete breach of naval systems if this network was plugged in or tied back to the ship network in any way or even just using it as a device jumper to get on to Navy ships. I'm glad this person got it demotion!
A Command Senior Chief is an E-8. She's been in the Navy for a long time, and was put in charge of a lot of enlisted people. She was very much aware of the comsec and opsec problems with installing an unauthorized satellite communications device. If she put her career, ship, and shipmates at risk for earlier scores on sports, I'm sure that there was betting going on, and she and her cohorts were making money off of the benefit of those early scores.
She's a modern-day Biff Tannen with a space-age sports almanac.
I admittedly know nothing about how the navy works. But if she's willing to spend that much money and take that much risk on the setup, there's got to be a financial intake somewhere to cover those expenses - and my first thought was gambling on those sports. Especially with it being a private network, as the rest of the gamblers aboard likely didn't know that the "select few" had early access to the scores.
ding-ding-DING!!!
Betting placement always closes at gametime, regardless of live coverage. You're confusing this story with the 1980 sci-fi war film "The Final Countdown".
@@BerzerkaDurk
A Navy NCO was demoted after it was discovered (by a Civ contractor ) a Starlink (and a WiFi network) was secretly placed on a Warship for her own entertainment, to watch movies.
Q: Why isn’t there a crew member (s) assigned to counter intelligence, signals opsec sniffing for rouge signals?
Simply running WireShark on a monitor screen, with an alert script would be enough.
Anyone can do that
@@robertvondarth1730really.. So how many times did you VOTE for professional liars to be your masters?? 😂😂😂
Steve, starlink satellite dishes are not reception only devices They are two way and in fact in order to keep them synced up with the moving satellites they have to transmit their location to those satellites, Any unauthorized radio frequency transmissions from a military ship unmask that ship's location or existence.
So this was a security breach on multiple levels, transmission of ship location for satellite matching, transmitting in general, And then whatever messages are being sent up to the satellites and through the internet.
That's three security breaches.
Ding ding ding! It broadasts their precise location to any enemies in the area. It put every life on that ship at risk, there should be jail time for this type of (colloquial) treason.
He's a lawyer, not an engineer.
Please supply me with any documentation that the antenna is transmitting its position and why. Not one GPS device is transmitting its position; the receiving algorithm knows what satellites are in view, and that's all they need to function.
@@hugegamer5988 And using an unsecure connection could let OTHER unsecure software share location data.
See the fitness trackers for an example.
Starshield is the military version of Starlink. Starlink's customer ground dish has AESA with beam forming tech, hence it's useful in the Ukranian-Russian conflict.
Starlink has mass produced AESA communication dish.
Northrop Grumman was selected as a partner for SpaceX's Starshield.
The former four-star general Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who previously ran U.S. Northern Command, is the vice president for SpaceX's Special Programs Group.
Any transmit capable device needs proper authorization.
As a former Naval Officer, (Pilot), I can not believe this Senior Chief is not being subject to a general court martial and discharged. Lying to the Captain? How is she still in the service? WTH has happened to the Navy I served in? As an Officer I was subject to high standards and paid dearly when I broke those rules and standards, but I can tell you I never lied to my Commanding Officer and am proud to have an honorable discharge. My offense was FAR less severe than what this Senior Chief (E-8, I was a Lieutenant, O-3) committed. I am appalled by this and the Navy’s lenient response.
My 1st Chief was a Senior Chief and he got caught fucking an E-3 while he was married right after his 3rd dui in 4 years. He didn't even get demoted, just shipped off to another command. And that was in 2004. And I heard all kinds of stories about what they got away in past. Once you hit E-7 in the Navy, you are nearly untouchable.
Have to maintain the DEI rating.
You know he was a pilot because he will tell you right after he tells you his name. Hahahaha thanks for your service Sir. I was at NAS Meridian… you even been there?
Heck, as a retire First class, that was my thought too. I retired 19 years ago and if I had had the tech and done this, I would be under a military brig.
sdcoinshooter, Don't Forget "Endangering a Navy Ship/command"! Hackers "China/Russia" could gain access to "Location Information". During time of war the ship could be targeted and destroyed!
I’m retired Navy. There is a saying in the Navy, “Loose lips sink ships”. A war ship has to have the ability to go dark while moving around the world. Controlling communications to and from the ship is very important during a military operation. An unauthorized installation of a “tracking device” is a severe breach of security.
"Navy Leader Demoted After *_SHE_* ..."
Ahhh an axe wound promotion...say no more.
@@JPs-q1o Way to show YOU could never be trusted to honestly support a co-ed team!
its not 1944 anymore, its 2024 ... 'they" have satellites too, and nicer ones that can see ships !! ....you don't need radio frequencies anymore ... world technology isn't going to stop because you retired
@@JPs-q1o - Whether its work, relationships, this navy story, or whatever is going on... Like the alien said in one of my favorite sci-fi's, "Deceit and Treachery is the way of the Human Female." Examples Eve Delilah Jezebel, the woman who wanted John the baptist head on a platter. OK... Make your case that this is wrong? I'll wait LOL Any man with ex's can back up this assertion.
Could the Captain call a Captain’s mass over this Sir?
I was a submariner in the Navy. OPSEC is paramount. She knew exactly what she was doing. Her and all of the chiefs involved should be court martialed, stripped of their rank and reduced to E1 and given BCDs.
This leniency is a prime example of how broken the military is. Harsh punishment for petty offenses and light punishment for the privileged few.
Western militaries have lost their edge in quality troops. They prefer to rely on technology and bow to the whims of the current political climate.
Exactly!!
PN1(SW) USN(Ret)
She was on an LCS, they have no mission. They are modular ships that the work packages haven't been built for. If you look this one up it has been doing only meet and greet in the south pacific, so it was boring. What she did is wrong, it is also wrong to half fund ships and expect people to take it serious.
@@Unknown-qp9ur Yeah God forbid we expect a Senior Chief Petty Officer to take the mission seriously, follow orders, set an example, uphold the core values and comport herself with honor.
She was fortunate that she wasn't kicked out of service with an dishonorable discharge.
at worst it'd probably be "other than honorable" rather than Dishonorable.
Forget any future promotions , probably to get her to step down.
She killed her career, time to resign from the Navy
She should have been. I'd they had to run all system with no EM...it might still be running when that was ordered
@SINDRIKARL1 she's female, they will do the minimum they have to as far as discipline goes. I served in the Navy when they started putting women aboard ships in 1978. Trust me on this.
The worst part really is the betrayal of OpSec from a senior NCO. It's really unforgivable.
She should have been dishonorably discharged. Lying.....can't be trusted to follow the rules, dis-respect of upper command. I wouldn't want this person in charge of anything. She needs to be made an example of, to help restore respect for command.
Not only her, but the other 15+ sailors involved that knew of its existence.
She has diversity armor.
Yah but you can't dishonorably discharge a whamenz, that's saxizms and meehsogunny
Keep in mind SHE is female sailor, expand your mind and you'll get it.
Navy is missing recruitment goals by the thousands. They can't afford to let anyone go.
I am not a navy guy, but I am an IT professional, and have worked infosec jobs before. I have no words to explain how monumentally stupid and insane this is! IT IS A MAJOR BREACH OF SECURITY! No could be about it. IT IS. If nothing else it was giving away the ship's location to unauthorized 3rd parties. The way starlink works the satellites need to know where the terminal is and keep track of its location. That's why at first you could only use it at the address you registered it, and that's why in a certain conflict a certain government had to ask Elon to extend the geograpical area where they could operate so their troops could use it behind enemy lines.
I would imagine that Starlink has information about the networks and terminals used by the military cordoned off and secured internally. But if she was using a commercial terminal without informing Starlink to implement security around it, then most likely any first line support agent could have had access to her customer information and the terminal's geographical location. It would be trivial to put them together and conclude what most likely a navy officer's terminal is doing in the middle of the ocean. I imagine a lot of embassies would love to pay for that information.
Not to mention that now the navy has to wonder if sports and TV information was ALL that was being transmitted through that network. Maybe some encrypted Signal or Telegram messages were sent too. There's almost no way to know, but you bet your ass they'll do everything they can to find out.
This is beyond insane. Wow.
The DoD has their own Starlink contract for a military oriented version of the service. It's encrypted twice, then allowed to exit the enclave, as is standard for DoD traffic. The network is entirely segregated for military usage.
But worse, just transmitting anything gives away a warship's location, as the ocean is notable for its lack of transmitters. It's nothing to just toss a beam rider down a bearing to a transmission source and make it go away in a moment of fire, brimstone and thunder.
And I did military information assurance, if just plugging in an unauthorized device is a major no-no, standing up your own network and network access point is beyond the call of big time no-no. Right up there with the idiot that actually bridged a classified network with the unclassified network and added a remote access point in order to administer both - promptly getting his clearance revoked and an immediate escort from the forward deployed base.
My captain told us that same thing one time when I was stationed aboard a submarine- “This is a WARSHIP, not a cruise ship!”
" *_SHE_* " ...
Ahhh an axe wound promotion...say no more.
Since she clearly lied about the Starlink even after being caught, I wonder if she wasn't up to something more nefarious than texting, streaming video, and sports scores.
I don't know did anybody think she might be a traitor
i think i saw something about gambling and charging for access
She was using the chief credit card (gov card) to pay for it.
The lies were a coverup. She knew it broke the rules and didn't want to get in trouble for it. That's how most coverups go down. (And as I said in another comment, sports scores and videos were a side benefit: This was absolutely so that folks could stay in communication with their families.)
Only Fantails?
I remember when kids showed you could identify US base locations in Afghanistan and Iraq by public information from smart watches the troops were wearing.
That is not specifically the same as this situation, the point is digital data security and signal broadcast is critical information.
What she did placed her entire crew at risk, I’m surprised she wasn’t removed from the military
I couldn’t even hook up my usb to the computer bc of security issues, but this idiot put err-one at risk.
That's the kind of breach that have put people in Leavenworth before
Facebook won't even let me make an account cause I got all my privacy protections up.
heh for 7 months the mercenaries in Ukraine were taking selfies with their cell phones and providing the Russians with excellent targeting data before they got the hint.
me too, she should have been separated immediately
Considering the seriousness of this, reduction in rank one rank is just a slap on the wrist. Not only did she make a major OPSEC violation, but she also had her entire Chief Mess involved, told them to also lie to the CO. Should have been reduced to E6, brig time, and dishonorable discharged. Of course anyone that has been in the navy knows that “discipline” is different for those who wear Khaki uniforms.
Not sure if double reduction in rank is possible, even at special court marital which is what was probaly done to get the reduction for a senior enlisted. Removing a frocked rank and then reducing is usually how it is done if at all.
Dave, if I am understanding correctly, the monthly subscription charge was charged to a group credit card, suggesting it may be a Navy card and theft of federal funds.
In order to remove anchores from a chief it takes an act of congress. I am guess Big Navy wanted to keep this a secret for national security, and avoid embarrassment
@@markroncoroni697 "Reduction in rank" covers all reductions, and going down by two pegs is on the table even at a special court-martial.
@@Bear-cm1vl misuse of navy funds pales in comparison to putting a radio beacon atop the ship loudly broadcasting their position to any enemies in the area. Every life was put at risk.
A lower ranking officer 100% noticed it, reported it, and had the report mysteriously disappear
Apparently not since we know about it
As a Navy veteran the fact that she wasn’t dishonorably discharged or at least less than honorable discharge is infuriating. Putting the ships security in danger. I know 40 years ago she would have been in the brig on bread and water, don’t know if they still do that now. Being only demoted to Chief Petty Officer from Senior Chief Petty officer, still leaves her in an important leadership role for the enlisted sailors in her charge. How can they have any respect or confidence in her” leadership “?
Bread and water was abolished in 2019.
@@dallasarnold8615 too bad😕
She was probably a DEI hire and promoted. Race probably had something to do with it too
Your first paragraph was almost verbatim to mine.
She didn't even lose a stripe she just got relieved of command.
The sense of entitlement that the former senior chief had is unbelievable. Yeah let's put a big target on our ship so we can watch ESPN while out at sea. And they lie about it! Life aboard a Navy ship is not meant to be a pleasure cruise. On top of that they kept the WiFi to themselves and did not make it available to the lower ranks. When I was is the Army the phrase was not rank has it's privileges, but Rank has it's responsibilities. Greedy selfish, and in this case downright STUPID CPO's are the ruin of a good ship.
If this was a lower enlisted there would have been a court martial, reduction in grade and a Bad Conduct Discharge. They only busted this CPO down on rank to sweep it under the rug and let her retire. She does not deserve a retirement check!
Seeing as she comparatively got a slap on the wrist for what she did and how serious that could of been I'd say she's showing rank does have it's privileges.
"did not make it available to the lower ranks"
I think they were running a sports betting ring, where the crew wouldn't know the results until the next port, but the conspirators had instant access to the results.
If so, I wonder how likely one of the "lower ranks" is to come forward and confess to being taken advantage of.
Since she took the risk of paying the $1000 monthly bill with a military budget, I would assume they were not making very much. Probably a few hundred bucks a month per each of conspirators. Call it $10k/month total?
So a Master Chief was only demoted one rank for lying, inappropriate use of funds, and installing unapproved network devices? I am sure JAG could come up with more charges.
How about being busted to seaman, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, 1 year in the Brig, and a Dishonorable Discharge or a Bad Conduct Discharge.
The extremely low standards in the Military & Government is disgusting.
Yeah, who would want to be at sea with this sailor? It's like something from catch 22.
Navy is short on people, I am specualting that DEI is involved with the decision matrix.
Field grade Article 15 at least. WTH.
There are rocks needing breaking at Leavenworth...
DEI . . . Enough said?
Disgusting! She should have been immediately removed from duty and then put in prison. Everyone on the ship was in danger of destruction! How much of taxpayer’s money would it cost to pay for a new ship and pay out for every killed person?
"Let me explain something to you. Many good men and women lost their lives aboard this ship because someone wanted a faster computer to make life easier..." Adama
"Navy Leader Demoted After *_SHE_* ..."
Ahhh an axe wound promotion...say no more.
@@JPs-q1o axe wound?
@@LuluPunk
Just report the account. It's replying to all comments the same thing.
@@AHDBification exactly what I did, reported it. Not worthy of commenting to without a sock full of bricks.
What's astounding is, as a senior NCO, she knew damned well better and had to know the regulations in order to gain promotions. Annual IA training is mandatory for all networked computer users as well.
I'm astounded that this NCO survived 10 seconds in the goatlocker!
So, to answer the question at 3:30, they'll actually found that the wifi didn't reach to their berthings well enough, and actually put up repeaters and signal boosters around the ship.
As a USN Sailor of 18 years this story floored me. Not just the gall, but the risk they put the ship at.
Absolutely disgusting.
"STINKY" is a default WiFi SSID for some generations of Starlink routers. Default settings are easy to change and suggests additional weakness in the network.
How is it possible she and her cohorts only received a slap on the wrist ? That Starlink and wi-fi connections should've lit that ship like a radio station. And their own electronics couldn't see those spurious bands? Stinky indeed. I hope they checked a little deeper into these brain dead actions.
I'm rewatching the video. It was a civilian who found the descrepency.... 😮😮😮 this story is Wild 😢
The Starlink signal is beamformed from a phased array, not omnidirectional. You'd have to be standing between the dish and the satellite it's talking to to pick it up.
@@pyrioncelendilTrue. But there's also a potential security risk right there, in that the Starlink system and anyone monitoring it knows exactly where each user's system is located.
@pyrioncelendil It is not a laser. It has sidelobes and backlobes. It should have been easily detectable from anywhere on the ship.
My bet is that she kept it completely off when not in use, and never used it during EMCONN conditions. It would have been REALLY stupid to do otherwise.
It could be broken into by a foreign intelligence service and used as a remote radio relay/listening device snooping on the ship's systems. Bad juju all around. 😢
Yeah, having StarLink on board, giving location data on a warship, doesn't seem like a security problem 🙄.
Yeah exactly
And if she was on Any secure net work on board the ship and then connected to the starling and someone gained access to that oh, there would be huge huge problems what an idiot it’s like the enlisted Navy men taking pictures of the nuclear submarine, which can be considered treason.🤦♂️
How many cell phones are on ships?
They only had connection in ports.
Considering how SpaceX treats China and refuses to allow Starshield (starlink for US Military) to operate in locations claimed by China, I don't think this is that much more of a security problem.
Not really a security issue as they only had connections in ports.
I'm a former Electronic Warfare tech. That's a horrible security vulnerability, allowing adversaries to direct a missile at the ship 😮
@El_Peto
She was arrigant and thought she could. She lied to the CO about it. She should be in prison!
Getting busted one paygrade is the Navy treating her differently. She should be in the brig. She put everyone at risk. She was the senior non-commissioned officer on the ship. This is disgusting and embarrassing to all Sailors and we Navy vets. Shame on her and the Commanding Officer.
She was busted down to E7. Dropping someone below that level is essentially impossible.
@@brian-px1bb Court Martial is VERY possible. NJP is one paygrade
@@brian-px1bbNo it’s not impossible, not hardly.
It's gonna heavily affect her pay and pension, she'll probably have an exit a few years down the line and will ride a desk in the meantime. At the very least her career is de facto over.
@@mad555max She’s likely already got her high 3 at E8. Riding a desk instead of going to sea is a reward not a punishment.
Just Looked her and she was a Command Senior Chief, similar to Command Master Chief and Chief of the Boat (Submarines) which meant she was highest ranking enlisted person on the ship. This make it worse because she probably used her position to make it happen and keep it hidden. Also another thing that makes it worse is she has a back ground in Navy Intelligence so she should have known better about unauthorized radio transmissions.
Also, the XO was "discharged from the service" just a few months ago under vague circumstances. I know it's a new littoral ship, but something just isn't right with the crew.
@@Times_Ticking Saw that and I was thinking the same thing. Actions like this and of the Senior Chief aren't usually isolated. IMO indicates issues with the chain of command.
"she should have known better about unauthorized radio transmissions"
I figure she knew better and just 1) didn't expect to get caught and 2) didn't expect there to be much of a bruhaha over it if she was and 3) figured the Chiefs' good-old-boy network would close ranks and protect her. In fact it was probably the Chiefs' network that kept her from being cashiered with a DD. In the Canoe Club the officers are the head but the Chiefs are the neck.
@@billmullins6833 Ah yes, the Chief's Mess has protected many careers but I did first hand see the Chief's Mess destroy a Senior Chiefs career though.
Even worse is she is actively seeking IT work. Like she has no business working in IT if she didn't think to disable SSID broadcasting.
It's not only the risk of revealing the ships movement, it's the potential for use of unauthorized RF frequencies that may interfere with critical equipment. Bad time to find out in the middle of battle that a stupid Starlink inferes with combat capability
Starlink is being offically deployed on USN ships. The key word is "unauthorized". The official Sat dish installer discovered the unauthorized Starlink dish. Do it by the book.
@@valenrn8657 The Starlink/Starshield units being made for the US government are almost CERTAINLY not entirely the same as consumer grade Starlink.
@@vburke1Nailed it.
Steve, I have been watching you for about a year now. I love the way you explain things. You seam like a humble guy.
This past year I've went through my first lawsuit. (1.8 million) I was the defendant. It was ruled frivolous.
Some of your videos gave me such hope some was just like wow I can't believe some people would fight such a case. But I just want to say thanks for giving hope that the system does work.
If your ever in knoxville tn look me up. I owe you a lunch at the least.
Love the content. Keep it up.
I work in the marine industry, primarily yachts. The old system is Vsat which connects to the internet at less than 10Mbps and costs over $10,000 to purchase and up to $10,000 a month to subscribe. Starlink has much higher speeds >200Mbps for a fraction of the cost of Vsat. I see many vessels switching over to Starlink. As far as a warship; Starlink can be tracked and is a security risk, as stated by Elon when Starlink was given to Ukraine.
If I was the navy I would immediately have every ship in the fleet checked for starlinks.
Smart phones, iPads, etc. being allowed is wild. Actually any personal communication devices being allowed is wild. Incomprehensible.
@@pistonburner6448seriously, as though they believe it's impossible to track those things?!
@@pistonburner6448Incomprehensible?
@@benchoflemons398 inconceivable ))
@@pistonburner6448
why if you forbid the use and storage them secure
Former military here, and only speaking for my experience. Yes, there are people that know their ship/installation very well. As a matter of fact, there are even more that are responsible for spotting things out of the ordinary (guard posting, inspections, maintenance, etc.). There's two issues here. First, lower ranks tend to cover for each other when they can (e.g., E4 mafia) and that includes jr and mid-level officers. Second, it's usually the average recruit that doesn't necessarily know enough, or care enough, to report it as unusual. In this case, if they did I would guess they were told it's above their pay grade and don't worry about it. After it was found, they were probably asked why they didn't report it and simply said they didn't know it wasn't normal, didn't see it, or did and was told to ignore it - the end result being that they don't get in trouble. Everyone knows better than to stick their neck out and risk problems when doing the opposite will have no effect. It is a little less common when you're in a war zone, but it does still happen even then.
I'm reading into it a little, but in this case it sounds like she had conspirators that used the link. Likely, she included anyone with any responsibility for spotting foreign equipment or signals so they wouldn't tell anyone. That's why a civilian (who I'm guessing found the signal first, not the equipment) spotted it and not military. Those conspirators were likely given non-judicial punishment in lieu of Court Marshal, which is why no one heard about them.
I know nothing about warships, but I would think that it wouldn't really be possible to install a rogue internet device like a Starlink without having some help from the crew. The dish is typically placed outside (unless they could use it through a window) and a cable from the dish to a receiver would be run into the interior. I'm surprised none of the installation wasn't noticed sooner.
I believe it possible that everyone knew. It had to be visible to operate. There were no doubt a fairly large amount of conspirators and people can't keep their mouths shut. If the civilian knew it was out of place,who didn't?
Don't forget, all the admin troops stick together, in AF we called it the E-5 Mafia
It's possible that the equipment was found before the signal since the contractor would've recognized the hardware.
In general I agree with you however when I was an E4 we would try to take care of our own issues but something like this that is a legitimate danger? We would take care of it, not let it continue.
I spent 4 years in the Air Force and most of the remainder of my 40+ years working career as a civilian DoD contractor. I can tell you with very little doubt that for someone to believe they can get away with something like this, they most likely are simply following the lead of others who have already gotten away with it.
Did you work in information technology?
For those non-Navy people, here is a breakdown. 3 huge issues here, COMSEC, OPSEC, and Rank/Leadership. Navy ships really don't like to tell the bad guys, where they are. Think the ole WW2 phrase, "Loose lips, sink ships". Bad guys knowing a ship's location allows them to set traps or plan the engagement to their advantage. It isn't just this ship alone either. This type of ship is designed to work in groups, so you are giving away the location of a small fleet possibly. All Navy shipboard communications are usually encrypted to some degree. Yes, they have phones on board that you can call home on, but that all runs through secure satellites and security. It isn't the WIFI that gives away the ship; it is the down-link from Starlink which probably had minimal security. That can be tracked or narrow the area the ship would be operating in. This is all why, you can't call home and be say, "Hey mom, I'm going to be in such and such port on this date." That would be a HUGE COMSEC/OPSEC breach. Part 2 will address the other issue.
"Man aloft do not rotate or radiate any electronic equipment while man is aloft." That was what I was required to say over the 1MC back in the late 70s when I stood watch on the USS Prairie (AD-15).
It's very similar to what's still passed.
I don't understand how she wasn't court martialed. Bringing any unauthorized digital communication device aboard a US Navy combat vessel is an extremely dangerous and, whether wittingly or not, traitorous act. I'd look into her personal finances for Chinese or Russian front companies making deposits into her bank accounts.
Stop.
Pretty sure the only way to reduce a senior enlisted in rank is by courts-martial, in this case, probably a special courts-martial
“She” is why.
She wasn't prosecuted fairly because of DEI, Senior SNCOs are still subject to NJPs. Furthermore NJPs can in fact demote, fine, etc. And usually reserved for minor offenses. Witnessed a LtCol do it to a Gunny. For assaulting a subordinate. far less than such a severe offense as endangering an entire Ship & crew.
@@markroncoroni697 Yes and she was lucky it didn't go to a General Courtsmartial.
As someone who used and worked with Navy comm systems and other “radio” systems, I don’t understand how she thought they would get away with this. OPSEC and EMCON went right out of the window with this one. Also a Senior Chief being demoted to Chief is no small thing. Her career is over.
It should be jail for 20 years for putting all those lives at risk. Starlink broadcasts your precise location as part of its handshake with satellites and anyone in the area would know exactly where they are.
@@hugegamer5988 Indeed. The light punishments are just a sign of the times.
Why didn't the Ships security officer detect this during routine signal sweeps? Maybe they need to investigate some others also!
@@danielweston9188 She was the Command Senior Chief (top enlisted position) of a LCS (small crew 53-88 total sailors) and had the whole Chief's Mess in her pocket. I'm betting only a fraction of what happened was released to the public.
Is this right? Starlink is not the problem. It is being installed on ships as part of the SEA2 program. The problem is that it was not under the scrutiny and control of the command chain.
The key word in this story is "unauthorized ". My son is a communications officer on a different USN warship and they received authorization to install Starlink on their ship. It is a great morale booster for the crew to be able to send/receive email and watch tv and movies when not on duty.
Authorized is important. That means the command knows about it and can control it. Turn it off when the mission dictates. Turn it back on when reasonable. This Senior Chump would’ve just let this thing ping continuously even as missiles were inbound. She is the very definition of an insider threat and should be prosecuted, jailed, and stripped of her rank and pension.
and it is attached to a controlled power supply that is controlled by the Bridge. Turned off during any navel activity!
If they are using it then they are not lawfully using it. Elon made it clear af that no military is to use Starlink. Any military base, plane, ship, whatever that uses it is in violation of the terms of service. Elon doesn't want his product associated with war and conflict which is exactly what every military is associated with.
@@markseabolt5959 Technically she was the highest ranking NCO on her ship. She is part of ship command. She literally had a navy credit card she could bill thousands of dollars to without requesting approval beforehand.
@@danielweston9188 They only turn off stuff like that if there is a news blackout for when someone is killed or injured. Maybe if it was a spy ship or in combat they would turn it off. But it's not like there is a light switch to do it, individual people who control each internet hotspot would be tasked to enforce blackout.
I just read the full Navy Times article. It’s good reporting by the way. This was soooooo bad. Worse than Steve’s (very good) summary could quite convey.
The levels of deception, the hurling of others under the bus, the gross sabotage of the ship, its morale, and naval discipline is stunning. Not to mention it corrupted an entire chief’s mess. How this person could remain with any rank or authority over others is amazing.
25 year retired Navy SCPO here, I'm really discussed with action of the Chiefs mess aboard this ship! I served on the aviation side in helo squadrons aboard these types of ships and you are completely correct that most anyone aboard that ship should have been able to look up and say what's that, and what is it doing there cause it doesn't belong aboard this ship, especially the CO, XO, Chief Engineer, TAO, and COM Officer, anyone really. Not to mention the network itself, anyone with any type of smart device could open network connections available and say there it is, don't tell me it doesn't exist cause I can see it does. Things must have really changed in the 20 years since I retired cause my Comand Master Chief, or one of the Chiefs in the mess probably would have been the ones who discovered the network, not the ones installing it. They all should have had the book thrown at them! However with that in mind, in my day if the Chiefs Mess had did something like this, no one would have ever noticed, been able to track, and would never had been to figure it out, cause, back then the Chiefs Mess was the experts in Navy!
DEI, Senior Chief. D! E! I!!!
Painting a target on the ship with an unknown WI-FI well DUH!
Operational Security is apparently a foreign term to many people.😢
The starlink connection itself isn't secured to the standards of the military
If the starlink network was compromised it would be more than easy to get the exact location of the ship as the starlink mesh also acts as a gps network due to the number of nodes
@@Sylusssss I wonder how easy it would be to discern between the Starlink being placed on a warship vs being placed on a yacht. I guess if there was a compromise, someone who did enough digging could determine something from the content of the text messages that were sent could determine that they were coming from a warship.
"Stinky" is a default name for Starlink. She then changed it to a printer name to disguise it.
Holy Crap! Dude, those guys are just MAD CRAZY about Radio Emissions of any and every type! For good reason too... it paints the ship as a target! I was at sea once in a war game on a carrier. We set zebra and secured EVERYTHING. You turn off all electronics devices and pull their batteries and unplug it, close all light locker doors and secure all bulkhead doors... going electronic warfare quiet. Didnt last long. Damn bombers came screaming in and we were informed we were nailed by a flood of missiles. The air was a mess of fighters and bombers. We were killed. A few hours later as they were talking aobut what our weakness was we found out that they had radio noise from the ship which nailed us down to the map. The even told us exactly where it was - down to the foot! Showed us where it was on a map of the carrier. When we opened up the room and went to that location they found a tape deck. Somebody had opened it up so it stopped playing, but left the tape in the machine, which left the motor running. The motor was making the electrical noise which Red Team spotted with their electronic warfare gear.
Yah... they are serious about this crap, better believe it.
Oh, they dont even need to see the dish. They will spot the wires. The wiring is regularly inspected for regulations. The above is an example of how quiet that ship needs to be across the entire spectrum. Noise can be created simply by have two inappropriate wires next to each other. Yes, the ship is known not just to some, but to many. So is the wiring.
There is an old naval saying, If it moves salute it, if it doesn't move, polish it, if you can't polish it, paint it. The paint chosen is almost always gray, just like a Starlink terminal. So it arrived perfectly camouflaged for the naval environment, and nobody not running a spectrum analyzer, probably not a common naval instrument, would have been likely to notice it. It may even be that the people who might have been operating the EW suite, who probably have spectrum analyzers, are petty officers and in on the secret.
@El_Peto Judgement call. A bad one in this case. But the reality is that the POs likely simply jumped Naval institutional inertia. There is no good reason not to have an authorized satellite Internet connection on warships (which might be shut down under circumstances when it poses a special danger). It is, after all just another transceiver, with a low probability of interception at any significant range.
Lying to a senior officer should immediately result in stripped of all ranks and dishonorable discharge.
Damn. I got disciplined for bringing an unauthorized expresso pot to a training exercise. Yea, I knew better but I really enjoy coffee.
If you were in the A.F. you would have received a promotion.
Un authorized expresso machine. Breach
@@israelcruz4946 Breach-loaded espresso machine? Where do I get one of those??
Honestly, considering how many devices these days want some kind of internet connection for 'updates' I'm not sure if I can blame anyone for saying 'ya no we need to know what that device is actually doing first'.
In the army you get promoted for quality field coffee.
How in the world this didn't end in an immediate dishonorable discharge with criminal charges is beyond me.
Some people are more equal than others... AKA look into her family tree
@El_Petoso does loss of rank.
One of my favorite things about the Steve Lehto Channel is that I can go for a month or so without watching any SL videos but then I can binge watch to catch up.
Not actually a characteristic that’s specific to Steve’s channep
God Bless the Homeless vets! 😀
Steve when you are talking about endangering a crew, a ship, a ships mission, and any formation that ship may be part of it to call it a SAFETY issue is a huge understatement.
"Aloft time" - someone was going high on the masts, usually you need to power off all other radios / radars etc. Takes a request to do, because the Quarterdeck has to make announcements every 15 minutes or so to remind people not to emit the affected equipment.
Command Senior chief - as stated below, she was the highest enlisted person on the ship, usually a CO / XO advisor on matters with enlisted personnel.
USS Manchester - an LCS ship (explains - small crew, Command Senior Chief), probably an LCDR for CO.
(Former LT USN).
A thread on Reddit noted that the network name 'STINKY' is the default network name on StarLink and is a bad name because it is meant to be changed.
We used "Scammer" as the default name to make people change it.....
Demoted? How about dishonorable discharge and prison.
Considering the Commander in chief, meh. Also this effects pension too.
Most military branches are quite short of people currently, the dishonorable discharge will probably come closer to the end of the contract
I imagine qualified command staff aren't easy to come by. Demote her, give her a chance to rise in the ranks again and save that institutional knowledge.
The real punishment that she will never be repromoted or have any position of trust. This is her last tour and she will retire at a lower rank
@@ettchaHow is this person qualified?
She was a senior chief. Enlisted not officer. I wonder why the news is getting this part wrong. In my little world it makes a world of difference haha
I took it the same way. BUT We’re all “officers” qualified by “non-commisioned” which the ground troops use more. “Petty” for us.
Also, my world. In my world she would have been booted from the Navy with a Big Chicken Dinner for several other charges. Article 92 for one and she lied (I forget the charge for that one) three times, and she "stole" from the ship. She would have had to pull "permits" to have the electronics shut down overhead so they could install it unless they did it in port on a weekend when no one was around (happens to skirt the safeties someties) but the ship has an infotainment system installed already but it is controlled and they didnt want people to know what they were doing.
Could that be Steve’s mistake or whomever he copied in the title. She is enlisted but is listed as a noncommissioned officer (NCO).
Maybe that is the confusing part to the person who came up with the title because she does have people reporting to her. Whoever made the title is unaware of the distinction between enlisted and officers.
Last year on a sailboat (4 people) we operated a standard Starlink Dishy from SE Asia to Japan (Taiwan it was blocked) all the way across to Canada. That same dishy since then, is operating on my boat for $150/month. At sea Starlink charged us something like $2 per 50gB (the biggest draw was all the automatic nonsense on our phones.)
Comms on a military ship are a serious issue. Off Taiwan we spotted a large vessel approaching rapidly. No AIS signal (all commercial and large vessels are required, worldwide, to send out a signal of position, heading, speed.) Turned out to be the flagship of the Taiwanese Navy.
Starlink is two way. Up and down. So satellite signal up and down and WiFi to and from. A Wifi network can't (normally) be detected from a hundred yards away. So that's not a security risk. The up/down satellite communication signal for a Starlink is not that powerful -- but it could give the vessel's position away. I think the problem the NCO got into was embezzling the funds and lying about it. Otherwise, this is in the long hallowed U.S. military tradition known in WWII as being a Dog Robber, now a days: a Fixer. Clever, sneaky.... yeah, you shouldn't have done this.... but someone who can cook up a scheme like this can figure out a lot of other things as well. (I'm a fixer, fix it guy myself. I don't lie, so I've been told to 'cut it out,' 'WTF?' very often, 'well... don't do it again.' and often as not, ""Oh, that did work." Or 'That was you?'
And the Russian Navy has probably figured out how to detect Starlink signals from as far away as technically possible. A lot of the Ukrainian drone boat bombs used Starlink so they could be steered into Russian ships. The Russians to date have lost 26 significant vessels, including large missile cruisers, to these boat bombs.
And the way to find out who on board owns the illegal dishy is to just disconnect the cable and reconnect it a few times. Then just wait to see who comes to check the connection. Sunday afternoon in the US would probably be the best time to do this.
Steve: I was in USN and yes, there are people of many technical disciplines, both Navy personnel and civilian contractors who become familiar with aspects of the ships that they have worked on. That said, regardless of who discovered the unauthorized dish,the answer is a resounding YES! An unauthorized dish of any sort is potentially an extreme security risk to the ship and its crew. Starlink is a civilian satellite communications provider, used widely by ocean ships and other roff-grid connections that require internet service. By default, each mobile client is continuously tracked to provide uninterrupted communication with their satellite with the best “view” of the signal from the client. What this means is that Starlink does, by default, track all ships that use its services, so anyone who hacks into Starlink’s systems absolutely would gain the ability to track any client ship on that server! That SCPO was very lucky if she was not imprisoned as a result of endangering a US warship and its crew.
yes, indeed...
She wasn't "lucky". She has the correct color of skin to be forgiven even the most egregious offense.
Sailors are not allowed to use microwave ovens aboard ship when in critical situations trying to avoid detection. It doesn’t take much of a signal to be detected even from far away. Putting a Starlink dish on a ship, and installing an unvetted unauthorized WiFi system aboard is like installing a geo nautical tracker on the entire crew for Chinese, Russians, and all bad players out there to see! And eventually, destroy. The broad collusion by the Chiefs aboard should result either in demotion or in their early retirement. That Senior Chief got off easily on a mere one step demotion. The Navy’s gotten really soft and lackadaisical.
It was a female Senior Chief .... a Navy Token. You understand better now?
The NAVY knows everything. Local girl went missing/ran away the same day I drove to my next duty station almost the same time I cheeked out of PSD. I drove from Tennessee to Mountain View CA. (This was in the 80s pre cell) over that week. I arrived at Moffat and when I was was checking in base police came in and started asking me about this girl I was traveling with, where was she etc. etc. etc. I had no idea what they were talking about. But the fact I checked out of PSD Millington around the same time she went missing made me a suspect. I had no idea who she was etc. but I left to drive cross country the same time she went missing, They wanted to talk to me... The NAVY knows and will find out
FYI according to a report I read all chiefs involved received non-judicial punishments (NJP) via Commodore's Mast and the Command Senior Chief from the story was court-martialed. TBH I think the light punishments are probably due to the Navy's and the military's in general bad retention and recruitment rates.
Steve, this story reminds me of a situation where i working aircraft maintenance for a major airline at a big city in CA. A coworker moonlighting at direct TV as an installer. One night he and a couple of coworkers took our boom truck an installed a direct rv receiver on roof of the terminal and routed coaxial cable into out break room. We were enjoying our hook-up for a few months when finally someone from the airports came scooping around about who authorized to receive antenna installation on the roof. It was all down hill after that. No crime committed . We just had to remove the equipment from the building.
20yr Retired ET here -- There are no words this from a Senior Chief, but then I was a junior E-3/E-4/E-5 during Walker-Whitworth so I guess Disappointment is the only word that fits.
The phrase "long, hot summers in Kansas", and "don't drop the soap in the showers" would also fit
She can Not keep the "Security Clearance". Court Marshall & discharge those kind of people.
All the chiefs (or almost all of them) were in on it and paying for the service. She went to GCM and the other chiefs went to Commodores Mast. How they were not charged with conduct unbecoming and get BCD have know idea! The OPSEC breach alone is worth prison.
Which is the worst of the two offenses: the installation or the lies?
I vote the lies.
Lies wouldn’t have happened had she followed protocol and not put her ship and crew at risk.
She should have been dishonorably discharged for the lies alone. That is a serious offense. She put her ship and its crew at risk and then she lied to her commanding officers about it. If you can't be trusted, you should have no place in the military.
The installation. That device is basically a beacon shouting to the world, something's over here, look look look. These ships are supposed to be hard to detect.
Ben is behind the NOSTALGIC number plate.
Your question on “aloft”.
Aloft is a safety procedure/set of conditions allowing for the safe work in and transit to precarious locations such as up the mast.
To set aloft ships will tag out equipment such as radars in order to prevent them from spinning (and knocking a sailor down) or radiating and potentially harming a Sailor in their vicinity.
Aloft can be set in various zones only affecting equipment where the Sailors will be working/transiting.
The setting of aloft is fairly routine in port.
Can you imagine how panicked the other ships that were doing the same thing when the news of this came out.
Too stupid to be a NCO. “Gee, here’s a good idea I want to do, and I have never paid attention to security briefings in my entire military career.”
Getting your boat sunk by a radio emission homing missile hitting your starlink dish seems like an unnecessary way to go…
The people who'd normally spot it and report it ultimately report (on the enlisted side at least) to the NCO responsible for the problem.
Even any junior officers who notice are likely to be referred to her to find out why it's there.
A JO is not likely to be in a position to notice. Those aloft who would notice it would most likely be enlisted, and they would likely report it to the work center sups or chiefs who were all in on it as apparently the whole thing was known about in the Chief's mess. It took a civilian contractor installed a Securelink dish in the same area to notice it and report it to someone who was not in on it.
Oh, my goodness!!! I had to watch the CC to hear what "Canadian robot lady" was saying. lol I thought she was saying "four strangers", when she was saying "forest rangers"! I really need to turn up my volume next time! 🤣
At 7:00
Steve. The Starlink system has to transmit information in order to receive any. IP/TCP is a two-way communications link. So, it would have been an unauthorized radio transmitter, regardless of any additional information the users may be sending.
*The things people will do to see Caitlin Clark play basketball.*
Starlink is Bi-Directional, *AND* is an _unsecured network._ This is equivalent to the guy who took a picture of a sub's reactor.
Hopefully they were smart enough to keep it separate from the rest of the ships networks. Best case scenario is that they installed the starlink dish external and ran their own cable down to their personal router that broadcast the SSID for that wireless network and they used personal laptops or phones to access it. At least that way the internal ships networks are still air gapped from the starlink connection.
Though I find it hard to believe there would be a good way to snake a cable down. It seems more likely that they setup a separate VLAN on the ships equipment. Starlink antenna plugs into a port on switch xyz that is configured for VLAN 333 (made up number) they then make sure that the VLAN is trunked down to a switch local to where they want their connection to be. Then configure a port on switch abc for VLAN 333 and connect in their Starlink router.
While in theory this still keeps the starlink network separate from the rest of the ships networks, by being on the same physical equipment it is just one small configuration change away from being a massive security hole.
Starlink client dish has beam-forming AESA tech and currently being used in a hot war.
Starlink is being offically deployed via USN's SEA2 program. Official Sat dish installer discovered the unauthorized Starlink dish.
She should have been discharged under less tha honorablr circumstances and with loss of any prndion and benefits.
Back in 1980, I was a first-class (E-6) electronic technician aboard a U.S. Navy ship. I was in charge of the ship’s closed circuit TV system and also in charge of the electronic personal equipment safety program. The problem we had was that people would buy personal electronic equipment and sometimes it wasn’t compatible with the shipboard environment. Although the AC outlooks look the same as those ashore, they are wired differently and some equipment can present a hazard if plugged in. We would check out the personal equipment, advise the owner of its limitations, if the equipment was safe. If it was not safe, we would notify the owner and the XO who would write an official letter to whoever that service member bought the equipment from explaining that it was unsafe to use ownership and requesting that they refund the purchase price.
The EW (electronic warfare) crew would periodically scan the ship for any unnecessary emissions.
How they got that equipment on board and hid it so long is a mystery to me. 😂
and those scans will detect even low powered Bluetooth......how was this missed?
When I was in Iraq our Brigade communications section set up a Local Area Network (as usual) but also set up some servers with downloaded DVD movies so the soldiers could watch movies and TV shows during a little down time. The library grew to become quite extensive. I'm sure it violated all kinds of regs but it was at least secure. Even the Brigade Commander watched Seinfeld reruns at 2 AM after a long day. No harm done. Our soldiers also bought internet hookups to their trailers they lived in from local internet providers. Now this I never understood. It seemed like a massive security issue to me. It was a practice done Iraq-wide and not unique to our unit. But when we had a KIA the commander was able to order the "plug to be pulled" so nobody could email home about the loss of a soldier until next of kin were notified. Not sure ow the commercial plug was pulled to al this trailer pods but it seemed to work.
This was most definitely not a low security risk, if you're wondering how unspeakably horrible this could have gone there's the unvetted and unknown human being given just about unlimited access to the systems of one of the most powerful multi-billion dollar weapon platforms in the world.....🤯..... and not only that real life nightmare of thought there's also the fact that for a couple months the US Navy had a back door to their systems that they had no idea about.
Access to the systems by access of there phones.
Ben peeking over NOSTALGIC, Steve's RHS
I’d love to see the billing details. My Starlink cost me about $500 for the antenna, and a mobile subscription is $150/month - somewhat less than the amounts quoted in the article.
Ocean-going and in-motion use is significantly more expensive, requiring a priority plan, $1,000 per TB per month.
They bought the "high-performance" Starlink antenna and a global coverage roaming plan so that it would work at sea.
Good. We had a server failure when I was a civilian programmer in the USAF, and the sergeant in charge of backups ... simply hadn't.
He lost stripes nearly on the spot, and it took weeks to recreate the data. He somehow thought nobody really cared about that old (wasn't really) RS/6000.
I still work as a Navy Contractor and we hear some Navy-related scuttlebutt from time to time, and one of the things that went around my office is that what made this situation worse was the Command Senior Chief and the Chief's Mess knew they were doing something wrong because when the ship underwent an In-Service Inspection they removed the dish and related equipment prior to the inspection starting and then re-installed everything when the inspection ended and the ship was going back to sea.
Ben is behind the NOSTALGIC tag
Why are we awake this early!
@@brucelytle1144 10am where I am
@@brucelytle1144 Think of it this way, Steve is normally an hour earlier...😉😁
@@BenLeitch oh, I'm in Kansas, 10 am here also. I'm retired and sleep in!
Half naked neighbor, drunk woke me up early.... No, didn't get lucky😑!
@@brucelytle1144 Retired here too and just south of you. OK.
The Chief Petty Officer and all of the senior NCOs who were aware of this security breach should have been discharged from the service with loss of all pay and benefits.
Check sports scores - sounds to me that they haven't uncovered the bookie operation yet.
That is a great observation!
This is endemic throughout the service. They were not unhappy with the existing setup, they wanted to have their own network despite knowing this violated OPSEC. The fact that there were many chiefs involved highlights the loss of honor among my fellow chiefs. Sad. OSC(SW), retired.
This is hilarious! My son recently put this in at his cottage. They're fantastic! I thought it would be great to travel with one of these on cruise ships!
if it was a male chief he'd be out of the navy just for lying to the old man.
Newsflash, enlisted is not an officer.
Well, technically An E4 and up is, just not a commissioned one, they're called Non-Commissioned Officers.
@@deilapakserrion9927 lmfao, that's what an enlisted PETTY OFFICER is called. I was one. lmfao As soon as you hit e4 you become an NCO... petty officer 3rd class, 2nd 1st etc.
A Senior Chief Petty Officer is a Non Comissioned Officer. While when someone says "officer" they usually are referring to a commissioned officer, the article is still technically correct. But no one in the Navy would use officer in that way.
@@deilapakserrion9927 Yep an NCO and still yet not an officer. Let the veterans speak. The article is wrong in it's wording.
@@deilapakserrion9927 30 years in the Marines and not once did I hear or use the term officer to refer to a non-com.
I worked in secure communications in Air Force and Army. These Wi-Fi systems not only receive signal but also SEND signal to establish and maintain the satellite link. Serious, possibly deadly violation of comsec. It's like lighting a campfire on a battlefield at night.
Could have simply asked for pre-authorization.
She was the Command Senior Enlisted Assistant. Was supposed to set the behavior standard fUSS MANCHESTER's enlisted personnel. She was also an Information Technology Specialist, so knew how to do this. She "went aloft" (climbed the main mast) with another chief to install the dish. There are multiple dishes and antennas on the mast so no one would notice it. Only the civilian tech would grasp what was going on. She also would have run cable from the antenna to repeaters inside the Chief's mess. Finally, her woes aren't over. She will be subject to an Administrative Separation Board forcing her to retire from the service. Hope this info helps.
The point is she gets to RETIRE. She should have been court martialed so she gets a dishonorable discharge and doesn't retire.
This story has circumscribed the Earth seven times already, plus, has been to the Moon and back three times, and Steve still does a video on it. Keep the $$$$ rolling in folks.
You're right about the metal of the ship blocking the wifi signal. They probably used the cables that were already there that the authorized installer was going to use. They could then transmit the signal throughout the ship with 10:100 cat cables. They likely put wifi extenders on the ends of those cable so instead of having a hardwired connection that someone else could access, they used the wifi which can be password protected.
I'm surprised they didn’t charge her and the other chiefs involved with espionage for installing a un authorized network which could be used to transmit ship's classified intel without oversight.
As a recently retired Pentester that specialised in radio and RF, working in mainly commercial organisations; you would be amazed at the “ingenuity” and “inventiveness” that some individuals would employ in order to get network connectivity outside of the corporate environment. For some this would be to access blocked content (sports, pr0n etc) whilst some were intended to support locker room and toilet stall cameras. WiFi is easier to find the client device, whilst broadcast (2.4 & 5GHz) tv/monitor repeaters were far more of a challenge. For one of the latter we needed to catch the person using this system, so I took some spider cobweb and dangled a dead fly in front of the camera lens. It didn’t take too long for the “system operator” to show up and remove the debris obstructing his view - that particular contractor actually got jail time for his actions.
To address the comment at 7:00 about only receiving signals, neither Starlink nor WiFi ever receive only. They both transmit constantly, and anyone who knows what to look for can easily track the ship down.
In addition, the Starlink dish transmits its GPS coordinates to the satellites using, uh, whatever security Starlink devised. So now we have a private company getting real-time tracking for a Navy warship.
As you were saying there must be people who know this ship inside and out my thoughts immediately flashed to Scotty's statement that he knew everything about the Enterprise, as he turned around and smacked his head against the bulkhead.
Navy veteran here. Aloft time is when personnel go up on the main mast or other high areas of the ship in order to conduct preventive or corrective maintenance. They installed that antenna probably under the guise of performing some other maintenance in order to get the best positioning.
Not all senior Noncomms are brilliant. I have seen quite a few who were bull headed and stuck in the past. She probably thought she was emulating something she saw done by a senior NCO in her past but times and technology had changed and she didnt pick up on that. I was once in a unit in the 90s where the senior NCO ran a fleet of rental SUVs using the government credit card so we didnt have to go to the field in our HMMWVs. We also used a fancy repeater system with walkie talkies instead of the new frequency hopping radios which were hard to master an required layers of security when parked which was inconvenient. We always had a big learning curve whenever we deployed anywhere because we weren't used to using the radios or our vehicles. The battalion XO who was a major ordered it shut down so what did the senior sergeant major do? Ordered the commercial SUVs to be parked down at the company area so he wouldn't see them. Until he went to the field again and went ballistic. It continued long after that major left for his next assignment though - it was the 90s after all.
Before I retired, I got lit up for running a sharing server with movies, music, etc. at a forward location. The server was using 2/3 of the bandwidth on the base. The network administrator, who used the server himself, asked me quietly to limit it so we didn't overwhelm his network. I knew something was up when my laptop had been running at 100% for 14 hours straight while I was on duty! I had to set up a fan to help cool it and the external drive!
I was in the Navy in the 80s. They would fly VHS tapes of football games out to the ship. Sounds more like something a seaman apprentice would do.
I remember , back in the 70's in Iceland, when we would get week old videos of games (baseball, football, etc) a week late and sit in the day room watching them on AFARTS. And there was always one stupid noob who forgot they were taped, and would bet on them.
I am a network security architect for a Fortune 500 company and for me I see the security risks all around this and it freaks me out! If someone in an office building did this I would have that person's job no matter who it is! This is a major security issue and could have led to a complete breach of naval systems if this network was plugged in or tied back to the ship network in any way or even just using it as a device jumper to get on to Navy ships. I'm glad this person got it demotion!
She should have been given a dishonorable discharge and court-martialed.