Elon Musk’s Starlink Terminals Are Falling Into the Wrong Hands

March 25, 2024, 9:00 PM UTC

SpaceX’s Starlink touts its high-speed internet as “available almost anywhere on Earth.”

In the real world, its reach extends to countries where Elon Musk’s satellite-enabled service has no agreement to operate, including territories ruled by repressive regimes.

A Bloomberg News investigation identified wide-spanning examples of Starlink kits being traded and activated illegally. How they are smuggled and the sheer availability of Starlink on the black market suggests that its misuse is a systemic global problem, raising questions about the company’s control of a system with clear national security dimensions.

In Yemen, which is in the throes of a decade-long civil war, a government official conceded ...

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