US Navy Officers illegally install private Starlink on a warship

[elsiegee40]

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2024/09/03/how-navy-chiefs-conspired-to-get-themselves-illegal-warship-wi-fi/

 

Today’s Navy sailors are likely familiar with the jarring loss of internet connectivity that can come with a ship’s deployment.

 

For a variety of reasons, including operational security, a crew’s internet access is regularly restricted while underway, to preserve bandwidth for the mission and to keep their ship safe from nefarious online attacks.

 

But the senior enlisted leaders among the littoral combat ship Manchester’s gold crew knew no such privation last year, when they installed and secretly used their very own Wi-Fi network during a deployment, according to a scathing internal investigation obtained by Navy Times.

 

As the ship prepared for a West Pacific deployment in April 2023, the enlisted leader onboard conspired with the ship’s chiefs to install the secret, unauthorized network aboard the ship, for use exclusively by them.

 

So while rank-and-file sailors lived without the level of internet connectivity they enjoyed ashore, the chiefs installed a Starlink satellite internet dish on the top of the ship and used a Wi-Fi network they dubbed “STINKY” to check sports scores, text home and stream movies.

 

The enjoyment of those wireless creature comforts by enlisted leaders aboard the ship carried serious repercussions for the security of the ship and its crew.

 

“The danger such systems pose to the crew, the ship and the Navy cannot be understated,” the investigation notes.

 

Led by the senior enlisted leader of the ship’s gold crew, then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero, the effort roped in the entire chiefs mess by the time it was uncovered a few months later.

 

Marrero was relieved in late 2023 after repeatedly misleading and lying to her ship’s command about the Wi-Fi network, and she was convicted at court-martial this spring in connection to the scheme.

 

She was sentenced to a reduction in rank to E-7 after the trial and did not respond to requests for comment for this report.

 

The Navy has yet to release the entirety of the Manchester investigation file to Navy Times, including supplemental enclosures. Such records generally include statements or interview transcripts with the accused.

[pete]

I'm surprised at the lack of a custodial sentence.

 

I'm also surprised that the CO of a warship didn't properly investigate unexpected SSIDs on a warship. Or also get a major telling off about failing to captain properly and getting assigned to a dredger for a couple of years.

 

Somewhere an APT group is giggling while they work on a "free navy wifi" scheme (if it's not already bolted in place on half the fleet).

[Andrew_C]

Keel-hauling would have been too good for them...