How A Secret ‘STINKY’ Starlink Wi-Fi Network Was Exposed On A U.S. Warship

In the modern era of computation and communication, it's safe to say that it's difficult for anyone to live without the internet.

And those people also include those who work for the government.

In many cases, the line of work of these people require them to only work using government-issued devices, and connect those devices to only trusted internet connections. And what that means, during work, no personal devices is allowed.

This can be frustrating sometimes.

This is why a senior member at a warship decided to install a hidden SpaceX's Starlink terminal on the "O-5 level weatherdeck" of the ship, and named it "STINKY."

And this caused a series of trouble.

It all happened back in 2023, onboard the USS Manchester, an Independence-class littoral combat ship in the United States Navy.

The ship's enlisted leader, Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero, was frustrated by the Navy's restrictions on internet access, and because of that, she decided to secretly install a Starlink terminal on board the ship.

To make this happen, she orchestrated the purchase of a $2,800 Starlink terminal.

She then had the dish placed on the outside of the $500 million warship, strapped to a wooden pallet with zip ties. She then had a Wi-Fi network set up, so she could freely use it while on the ship.

At first, her plan was to only allow a select group of chiefs to connect, meaning that she wanted to include a select few, and exclude the rest of the crew. But because the Wi-Fi signal emitted from the dish wasn't strong enough, the chiefs bought additional signal repeaters during their stop in Pearl Harbor.

With unrestricted internet access, life of the chiefs aboard the USS Manchester was made a little more exciting.

With the dish on board, and repeaters scattered throughout the ship, these senior crew members were able to follow the news, check sports scores, send messages to their loved ones back at home, stream movies, all while the warship was deployed to the West Pacific.

But following this, the rest of crew began question this password-protected, mysterious Wi-Fi network, and rumors began to swirl.

To cover her scheme, Marrero covered her tracks by changing the network name to mimic a name of a general-use wireless printer that actually didn’t exist on board of the ship at the time.

She also went as far as removing questions about it from the commanding officer’s suggestion box in a bid to keep things under wraps.

Marrero's scheme began on March 2023, and she got away with it for several months until August.

This happened when ironically, a civilian worker from the Naval Information Warfare Center was in the process of installing an authorized Space X "Starshield" device, and stumbled upon the unauthorized dish..

To not raise any more alarm, Marrero went as far as fabricating fake reports to suggest the system was only used while the vessel is docked.

This however, fooled precisely nobody.

The U.S. Navy then sent investigators, and began a full-scale investigation into the whole affair.

Chief Grisel Marrero as the senior chief on board the USS Manchester could no longer lie.

Later, she pled guilty during a court martial and was relieved of her post by the Naval Surface Force Pacific, or SURFPAC.

After she was convicted, her rank was also reduced to E-7.

All of the senior crew members of the vessel who used, paid for, or were aware of the system received "administrative non-judicial punishment at commodore's mast."

And then came the plot twist.

It turns out that "STINKY" was actually the default name for Starlink Wi-Fi networks in 2022. So, not only was this an operational security disaster, but Marrero and her other chiefs didn’t even bother to change the default Wi-Fi name until they started getting noticed.

Musk has actually posted this on his account.