Elon Musk’s DOGE team put Starlink in the White House - and it’s got people worried
Experts are concerned Musk’s Starlink setup at the White House could be a big security risk. Since it skips the usual safeguards, it’s harder to track data and detect potential breaches.
Elon Musk’s Starlink terminal was set up by employees from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the White House complex, without going through the usual channels. That’s got cybersecurity specialists worried as it sidesteps key federal protections like VPN tracking and activity logging. Similar setups allegedly popped up at other government sites too, raising red flags about unmonitored data. The Secret Service says it’s not technically a breach, but experts are alarmed.
Starlink causes a security headache at the White House
According to The New York Times article, some people from DOGE (an initiative led by Elon Musk) slipped a Starlink terminal onto the roof of the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building without giving a heads-up to the White House communications team. This setup created a “StarlinkGuest” Wi-Fi network that only needed a – no name or extra security steps – which is a big difference from the White House’s usually tight security. The Secret Service says they knew about the Starlink setup and don’t see it as a security breach.
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Source: flickr; Photo by Brian Maxwell
Normally, the White House networks use full VPNs, tight access controls, activity logs, and device tracking to keep an eye on all the data coming and going. But Starlink connections skip all those safeguards, leaving no logs or VPN trails, which makes spotting data leaks or hacks way harder. Some experts are worried that Starlink could let bad actors, or even foreign spies, listen in on sensitive White House communications.
Starlink is also reportedly set up at other government agencies like the National Labor Relations Board and the General Services istration. It’s unclear why DOGE pushed so hard for Starlink, but in other agencies, DOGE employees reportedly demanded deep data access, disabled logging to hide their actions, and used AI tools to sift through large volumes of government data.
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