On March 26, Wired magazine published an article. Last week, according to a statement from White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt, the White House was adding Starlink Wi-Fi from Musk’s SpaceX company “to improve the Wi-Fi connection in the complex.” According to reports, the White House’s Starlink Internet service was donated by the company.
Cybersecurity researchers, government contractors and former intelligence analysts with years of experience in U.S. federal government security all say adding Starlink Wi-Fi in a seemingly hasty and haphazard manner is an inefficient and counterproductive way to solve network connectivity problems. They stressed that this could set a dangerous precedent in the U.S. government: new technologies can be added to an environment without adequate oversight and monitoring.
"This is shadow IT, creating a network to bypass existing controls," said Nicholas Weaver, a computer science lecturer at the University of California, Davis. He added that while classified and top-secret information is often, but not always, handled only on special, separate federal networks without wireless access, the security and consistency of White House Wi-Fi remains extremely important to national security. "Networks like the unclassified aspects of the White House are still very sensitive," he said.
The researchers noted that while Starlink is as powerful as any other commercial Internet service provider (ISP), it is unclear whether its implementation complies with the requirements of the White House Communications Agency. If Starlink Wi-Fi is more laxly controlled than other White House Wi-Fi, it could introduce security holes and blind spots in the monitoring of abnormal network activity.
"The only reason they need Starlink is to bypass the existing security controls in the White House Communications Agency," said Jack Williams, a former NSA hacker. "The biggest issues are: one, if they don't have comprehensive monitoring of the Starlink connection. And two, if it allows remote management tools, then they have remote access to the White House network. Obviously, anyone could abuse that access."
The New York Times reports that the White House's Starlink panels are actually installed miles away in the White House data center, which transmits the connection through existing fiber optic lines. Multiple sources stressed to Wired that the setup was strange.
"It's just silly to change a satellite signal to fiber optic and then connect it to an actual site," said ISC's Weaver. "Starlink is an inferior service anywhere there is already wired Internet, and even in places where there is no wired Internet, if the cell towers are reasonably visible, Starlink is an inferior service."