Using Starlink Wi-Fi in the White House is a slope of the United States federal
As the Trump administration Department of Efficiency (DOGE) continues to rampage through the U.S. federal government (essentially guided by Elon Musk), the group has also been raising traditional IT boundaries – assessing digital systems and allegedly accessing personally identifiable information and data that is often not trained, which is often the scope of that information. Last week, the New York Times reported that SpaceX’s Starlink Wi-Fi, owned by the White House, “to improve Wi-Fi connectivity in the complex,” a statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. The White House’s Star-Stripe Internet Service was reportedly donated by the company.
Spotty Internet is an annoying but highly resolvable problem, and Wired has been widely reported. Of course, the White House is a highly complex organization that runs outside of historic buildings, but cybersecurity researchers, government contractors and intelligence analysts with previous experience in the U.S. federal government security have told Wired that Wired has added Starlink Wi-Fi in a seemingly eager and accidental way, an efficient and counterproductive way to solve connectivity problems. They stress that it may set a problematic precedent in the U.S. government: New technology can be stratified into an environment at will without adequate supervision and monitoring.
“It’s the shadow, creating a network to bypass existing controls,” Nicholas Weaver, a member of the nonprofit International School of Computer Science Cybersecurity Team and a lecturer in computer science at the University of California, Davis. He added that despite only handling secrets and highest secret information on special, independent federal networks without wireless access, the security and unity of White House Wi-Fi remains very important to national security. “Like the White House, unclassified networks are still very sensitive,” he said.
The White House did not respond to Wired’s request for comment, on why existing Internet service providers on campus could not scale their services.
Researchers noted that while Starlink is a powerful commercial ISP like anyone else, it is not clear that it is being implemented as required by the White House communications agency. (The White House did not answer questions about whether the program complies with the WHCA agreement). If the controls on the White House Starlink Wi-Fi are looser than other White House Wi-Fi, security exposure and blind spots can be introduced in abnormal network monitoring activities.
“The only reason they need Starlink is to bypass the existing security controls of WHCA,” former NSA Hacker Jake Williams said. “The biggest problem is: First, if they don’t have full monitoring of Starlink connections. Second, if remote management tools are allowed, you can get remote access back into the White House network. Obviously, anyone can abuse that access.”
One confusing aspect of the arrangement is that Starlink and other satellite Internet designs are designed to be used in places where there are few or no access to terrestrial Internet services – in other words, there is no reliable fiber wire or wired infrastructure at all. Starlink customers are not traditional ISP modems, but special panels installed on rooftops or other outdoor locations to receive connectivity from orbital satellites. However, the New York Times reported that the White House Starlink panel was actually installed for miles in the White House data center, which is routing connectivity to existing fiber optic lines. Multiple sources emphasize wiring, and this setup is weird.
“It’s very silly to turn satellites to fibers to actual sites,” said Weaver of ICSI. “Starlink is an inferior service where you have wires and wires that are already available in the Internet, even if your sight is reasonable, even in the lower part of your sight.”
Weaver and others point out that Starlink is a powerful product and is not essentially unreliable because it is provided through satellites. However, in a highly available location and ultimately providing services through these lines, the setup efficiency is very inefficient.
While Starlink is technically reliable as a service, incorporating it into the White House could create long-term federal reliance on services controlled by Elon Musk, which could create future instability. After European officials’ concerns over whether Starlink might stop serving Ukraine, Musk posted on social media: “To be very clear, Starlink will never close its terminals, no matter how much I disagree with Ukraine’s policy…We will never do something like this or use it as a bargaining chip.”
