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New and old news on NLRB whistleblower - Starlink - Starshield - Russia - and Brendan Carr [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-17

Update:

Daniel Berulis Protected Whistleblower Declaration to Senator Tom Cotton (PDF).

This is his statement, dated April 14th, and the exhibits, screenshots, backing up his claim.

This is not the original contact with Congress back in March which had much more detail and was gone over by IT professionals and corroborated.

What I didn't include before was the NxGen database with the information that was accessed, and how a programmer for DOGE named Jordan Wick had a private source code folder on Github called NxGenBdoorExtract. You got it. A backdoor access to the file and how to download it or decrypt it. Most likely decrypt it. DOGE went in with prepared computer tools. Or a way to do it remotely. The NxGen database is used to store information about labor lawsuits with individuals involved and proprietary information about businesses.

The letter to Cotton reads in part:

"Mr. Berulis is coming forward today because of his concern that recent activity by members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have resulted in a significant cybersecurity breach that likely has and continues to expose our government to foreign intelligence and our nation's adversaries."

DOGE began it's operations at NLRB on March 3rd.

In his disclosure, Berulis said that several days before he found the threatening note on his door on April 7th, he'd been instructed to drop his investigation and not report anything to US security officials.

The current NLRB spokesman denied that DOGE have been granted access to the NLRB network. He said that an investigation after Berulis raised concerns, determined that nothing had happened.

We all know that's not true. Berulis has proof. What's in the PDF is apparently only a small part of what he recorded an observed.

The Russian hacker, or bot, originated in Primorsky Krai, Russia. That's pretty specific. 20 attempts with valid login and password and only the out-of-country block stopped him. These login attempts were within 15 minutes of DOGE creating new accounts. This was March 11th.

On March 7th was when he spotted the 10GB spike in outgoing traffic.

In the declaration Berulis says, "Having worked at sensitive US Government institutions, I have held a Top Secret security clearance with eligibility for access to Sensitive Compartmentalized Information, commonly known as TS/SCI."

After DOGE gained complete access to the NLRB system, which the spokesperson denies, Berulis spotted a virtual node that was able to run programs and scripts without leaving any trace on the network. There was another one he spotted that was set to expire quickly after its use making it harder to find out what it did during its a lifetime.

On March 10th Daniel Berulis found that controls in Microsoft Purview to prevent insecure or unauthorized access for mobile devices had been disabled.

Andrew Bakja of Whistleblower Aid, Daniel Berulis's lawyer told Jake Tapper that DOGE employees used Starlink to transfer data, which he believed was heavily compromised by Russian intelligence. "From our understanding, Russia has a direct pipeline through Starlink, which means everything going through Starlink is going to Russia." Unknown how he made this assumption, but he said that this could include nuclear regulatory material.

If Starlink is already compromised, wouldn't there be a huge channel of information being directed towards Russia that Starlink engineers would see? If so, why aren't they shutting it down? If correct, every Starlink user is at risk.

If Starlink is a Russian tool, this brings up again my question about the classified military version called Starshield. Who's in charge? How much does SpaceX do in its operation?

Right now, Daniel Berulis has made the news rounds at CNN, MSNBC and PBS with his lawyer, Andrew Bakja. Daniel has TS/SCI clearance. How much is he allowed to tell us? Perhaps that's why he let his lawyer answer some questions. There's got to be a lot more that he has already told to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence than was in his letter. Or maybe he's holding that back until he is in a SCIF. I'm just guessing.

Below is the original diary.

____________________________

Tuesday, Rachel Maddow had on Daniel Berulis, an IT employee at the NLRB, and his lawyer, Andrew Bakaj. Berulis laid out the incredible scenario that took place when DOGE took over the NLRB computer network and what he observed and recorded.

Here's the interview by Rachel Maddow.

He made several startling claims. One was that minutes after DOGE disabled network security and created new login accounts, there were repeated attempts to log into the system with an IP address from Russia, but was thwarted by the block still in place that prevented logins from outside the U.S. The hacker or bot had a valid login and password. Only the country block stopped him.

10GB spike - NPR

Then Berulis watched network traffic and saw a 10GB spike that he said were almost all text files being transmitted out of the network. The NLRB system has very sensitive information such as unions pursuing actions against employers, personal information on employees, company information, and more. It's a secure network for that reason. DOGE turned off all that security while they were accessing data and someone, or something, transmitted that data somewhere, whose path was obscured, even to Berulis.

During the interview, Berulis asserted that DOGE infrastructure was "connected to Starlink," allowing a data path to anywhere Elon Musk directed it. For that reason, Berulis said the U.S. Dept. of Defense stopped using Starlink.

Here's an interview Jake Tapper did with Berulis and his lawyer.

The military version is called Starshield. These are classified satellites that also provide target tracking, optical and radio reconnaissance, and early missile warning. There isn't really much known about Starshield, but SpaceX is still heavily involved. Does SpaceX know what data is going through these satellites and control them? Nobody knows. It's all classified.

Starshield satellite.

So when Daniel Berulis said the military stopped using Starlink, did he mean just Starlink, or Starlink and Starshield? If the military can't trust Starlink, can they trust Starshield? We have to leave that open because the only one we can talk to right now about it is Daniel Berulis. How would he know about the Defense Department was no longer using Starlink? NLRB isn't that kind of agency. Only if the Defense Dept. sent out a memo to that effect, like they did about not using Signal. But that would have been to so many agencies and personnel that we would have heard about it long ago. And it might have put Starlink out of business.

Daniel Berulis made his complaint to Congress some time ago. When he tried to bring attention to higher-ups at the NLRB, one day he found a note taped to his door, an apartment he'd only had for two months, and had told few people about. The threatening note had personal details and pictures from overhead of him walking his dog, obviously taken by a drone.

NPR has an article a mile long that has more information than you can digest. It was the basis for Rachel Maddow's segment giving an overview before interviewing Berulis and his lawyer.

"The whistleblower's account is corroborated by internal documentation and was reviewed by 11 technical experts across government agencies and the private sector."

This was Carr's avatar on his X account. He's changed it, finally.

It really happened. Now that you've all that background, why bring up Brendan Carr?

Brendan Carr is the Chaiman of the Federal Communications Commission. He wrote the FCC section of Project 2025. He's currently investigating Disney and ABC, CBS, YouTube TV, starting with DEI civil rights discrimination, and YouTube TV not carrying a small religious broadcaster. He's following through on Donald Trump's news media enemies list.

NBC and MSNBC couldn't confirm what Berulis said about the Defense Dept. dropping Starlink, but let's just say he's reliable and he wouldn't have said it if he wasn't sure. No reason to just make it up.

What the story here is that Starlink could be already compromised by the Russians. Starlink can now make your cell phone a satellite phone. Starlink has requested to be able to use a more powerful signal to boost this and the internet operation. Who controls that? The FCC.

Carr has warned EU members that if they are hesitant about using Elon Musk's Starlink, then they will have to choose between the U.S. and Chinese technology. That isn't quite true because Amazon is ready to start putting satellites up for it's own internet system, called Project Kuiper.

​Carr has said, "Allied western democracies" need to "focus on the real long-term bogey: the rise of the Chinese Communist Party."

Quite rightly, the EU wonders if Starlink is reliable after the Trump Administration threatened to turn off Ukraine's access to Starlink. There was already the one incident where Musk turned off Starlink over the Black Sea so Ukrainian water drones couldn't attack Russian ships. Musk said he did it to prevent the war from escalating, but that doesn't wash with reality.

Musk also had personal phone calls with Putin. Just like Trump did before he became president. What goes on in these calls I wonder?

Carr said, "If you're concerned about Starlink, just wait for the CCP's version, then you'll really be worried."

U.K. telecom companies BT and Vigin Media 02 have been testing Starlink for mobile and internet, but there's no deal yet.

The relationship between Elon Musk and Brendan Carr goes back a ways. During the first Trump term, the FCC tried to direct a billion dollars to Musk to deliver Starlink access to traffic medians and airport parking lots. The Biden FCC clawed those back. Biden was going for fiber optic in rural areas to bring them into the internet world. Trump has canceled that in favor of, guess who, Starlink.

Trump, Carr and Musk are buddies.

There is a European based alternative called Eutelsat's OneWeb. They just need to get additional launch capabilities to get theirs in orbit. Ukraine is already looking to them as an alternative to Starlink.

Carr isn't making any friends when he accuses the Europeans of protectionism and an anti-American attitude. He forgets Trump's tariffs are pure protectionism.

The whistleblower's claim makes it sound like Starlink has been compromised by Russia and is a data hose for information. The other possibility is that Musk is feeding the Russians deliberately. Either way, Russia is getting American data and sifting through it. Carr is acting like a used car(r) salesman drumming up business for Musk and SpaceX's Starlink.

If this is all true about Starlink, what about Starshield? Supposedly, Musk doesn't have the security clearance to know about the classified payloads SpaceX rockets put into orbit. But that was before Trump took office. It's a totally different world today.

If Biden were still President, action based on the whistleblower would be taken immediately. A Defense Dept. with Pete Hegseth in charge, this could just be ignored until a Congressional investigation occurs.

So I thought I'd look up if anyone had scheduled one and found still another NPR article only minutes old. DOGE has informed the NLRB that two DOGE employees have been assigned to the NLRB by the GSA and will work remotely. The raises all kinds of red flags just prior to a real investigation starting. The White House claims this is old news and everybody had been informed that two DOGE's would be assigned to each agency. That's actually true. But the timing is so suspicious.

After the first NPR story Rep. Gerry Connolly called for an investigation. He said DOGE "may be engaged in technological malfeasance and illegal activity." He asks Inspectors General to answer a number of questions regarding how DOGE may have violated federal law. NPR lists two journalist Signal accounts for anyone with info at the end of the new article.

Trump, Musk, Carr, Starlink, Starshield, Daniel Berulis, NLRB, and the Russians. It's too crazy to make out the truth, except for Daniel Berulis. Can Connolly and Congress put a halt to the two DOGE's getting access again? If they're working remotely, from where? As long as there is the country block, it won't be from Russia.

That's not very reassuring.

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