A decision by members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to hook the White House communications system up to Elon Musk's Starlink internet service was done over objections from Donald Trump's own communications experts.
According to a report from the Washington Post's Joseph Menn, three insiders claim that no one working on the White House communications management team was given advanced notice before DOGE employees were given access to the roof of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in February to set-up the equipment and activate it.
According to the Post's Menn, that was when alarms were raised about the very real possibility of security breaches.
The Post is reporting, "The people said those managing the systems weren’table to monitor such connections to stop sensitive information from leaving the complex or hackers from breaking in," adding that it is unknown to what extent the system is still working after the president's fall-out with billionaire Musk that came to a head on Thursday and continued into Friday night.
The report notes that traditionally everything that goes in and out of the White House is tracked but Starlink works around those protocols.
According to one insider, "Starlink doesn’t require anything. It allows you to transmit data without any kind of record or tracking. White House IT systems had very strong controls on network access. You had to be on a full-tunnel VPN at all times. If you are not on the VPN, White House-issued devices can’t connect to the outside.”
Another added, "With a Starlink connection, that means White House devices could leave the network and go out through gateways. … It’s going to help you bypass security."
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