A group of Navy sailors secretly used Starlink to check sports scores, social media and watch movies. They hid it from rank-and-file.

A U.S. Navy chief who wanted the internet so she and other enlisted officers could scroll social media, check sports scores and watch movies while deployed had an unauthorized Starlink satellite dish installed on a warship and lied to her commanding officer to keep it secret, according to investigators.

Internet access is restricted while a ship is underway to maintain bandwidth for military operations and to protect against cybersecurity threats.

The Navy quietly relieved Grisel Marrero, a command senior chief of the littoral combat ship USS Manchester, in August or September 2023, and released information on parts of the investigation this week.

  • @[email protected]English
    3•2 months ago

    So it’s collusion by the people who should be monitoring for such things? Or just collusion by people in some position of power, but who aren’t in charge of network security? I don’t know much about the positions these people held.

    Anyone directly involved should certainly be considered for disciplinary action, but there should be more safeguards here.

    • @[email protected]English
      4•2 months ago

      The original article said the Navy hadn’t provided all the details.

      It looks like those 15+ people included at least one person who should have been monitoring for such things and a bunch of people who wanted to follow sports.

      They didn’t give the password to most of the crew and they tried to keep the commanding officers in the dark. It sounds like everyone involved faced disciplinary action.

      Those chiefs and senior chiefs who used, paid for, helped hide or knew about the system were given administrative nonjudicial punishment at commodore’s mast, according to the investigation.

      It looks like that’s an administrative process. https://jagdefense.com/practice-areas/non-judicial-punishmentarticle-15/ Potential penalties are listed near the bottom.

    • CethinEnglish
      3•2 months ago

      The person the article is about was a Chief, and the highest ranked enlisted person on the ship. She would have the respect of all the enlisted members, as well as all the officers. She would be trusted to do her job and not do something stupid like this. She easily had the ability to do this, but you wouldn’t expect her to.