Elon Musk’s
Starlink is battling an onslaught of Russian hacking attempts in Ukraine, but
according to Musk, the Russians are doubling down. “Starlink has resisted
Russian cyberwar jamming & hacking attempts so far, but they are ramping up
their efforts,” Musk tweeted Wednesday. Musk’s tweet comes after the United
States, Britain, Canada, Estonia and the United Kingdom confirmed the
cyberattack on Tuesday.

Russia attacked Viasat’s
(VSAT.O) KA-SAT network later February just as Moscow troops moved into Ukraine.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the attack was meant to “disrupt
Ukrainian command and control during the invasion, and those actions had
spillover impacts into other European countries.”

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The attack,
according to the US, was massive, because when “those modems were knocked offline
it wasn’t like you could unplug them and plug them back in and reboot and they
come back.” “They were down and down hard; they had to go to the factory to be
swapped out,” US National Security Agency’s director of cybersecurity told
Reuters.

According to Ukrainian
government documents reviewed by Reuters, the satellite network under attack
was used by the Ukrainian army and police units. In March, Ukrainian cybersecurity
official Victor Zhora had said that the satellite modem “sabotage” led to a
huge loss of communications in the very beginning of the war.

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Viasat, the
satellite company, issued a statement “recognising” the announcement and said
it will work with government officials to investigate the attack.

While Viasat faced
a gruesome attack, Musk’s Starlink stood its ground. In March, Musk provided
thousands of internet terminals to Ukraine. The antennae-like terminals catch
the internet from Musk’s satellites in space.

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These internet
terminals were successfully able to thwart the Russian attack. US’ director of
electronic warfare at the office of the Secretary of Defense, said the way
Starlink had fought off the attacks was “eye-watering for him”.

Musk’s Starlink
has found wide use in the Ukraine army. Ukrainian troops have destroyed Russian
tanks and used the network for drone attacks.