Starlink customers can now log in with a physical hardware security key instead of relying on a password alone.
A new page on Starlink's site confirms the satellite internet service supports hardware security keys as a login method. These are small physical devices - often USB sticks or similar accessories - that use public-key cryptography to confirm a login attempt, which makes them much harder to phish than a password or a text-message code. The page doesn't say when the feature rolled out or whether it covers every account tier. There's no press release attached, which suggests this is the kind of security upgrade companies ship quietly rather than announce with fanfare.
Starlink accounts aren't just login pages - they control real hardware and real monthly bills, which makes them a more appealing target than the average subscription account. Hardware keys close off the most common way accounts get hijacked in the first place: phishing pages that trick someone into typing in a password and a one-time code.
Cloudflare has said this same approach - hardware keys over passwords and codes - is why a 2022 phishing attempt against its own staff went nowhere. If that comparison holds, the real question isn't whether hardware keys work. It's why a company already flying satellites took this long to offer them.