diff --git a/cmd/main.go b/cmd/main.go
index ea42da3..0f6fb6b 100644
--- a/cmd/main.go
+++ b/cmd/main.go
@@ -109,7 +109,11 @@ func main() {
 			if !ok || attachment.Status.VPC == "" || attachment.Status.VPCAttachment == "" {
 				return nil
 			}
-			return []string{galactic.AdvertisementName(attachment.Status.VPC, attachment.Status.VPCAttachment)}
+			identity := galactic.AdvertisementName(attachment.Status.VPC, attachment.Status.VPCAttachment)
+			if identity == "" {
+				return nil
+			}
+			return []string{identity}
 		}); err != nil {
 		setupLog.Error(err, "unable to index VPC attachments by identity")
 		os.Exit(1)
diff --git a/internal/galactic/galactic.go b/internal/galactic/galactic.go
index 4e82cf9..7c9e5b4 100644
--- a/internal/galactic/galactic.go
+++ b/internal/galactic/galactic.go
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
+
+	"go.datum.net/cloud/internal/identifier"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -166,17 +168,33 @@ func VRFInterfaceName(vpc string) string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf("G%09sV", vpc)
 }
 
-// AdvertisementName returns the BGPAdvertisement name galactic derives from an
-// attachment.
+// AdvertisementName returns the hex-encoded identity prefix shared by every
+// node-qualified BGPAdvertisement galactic derives from an attachment.
 func AdvertisementName(vpc, vpcAttachment string) string {
-	return fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", vpc, vpcAttachment)
+	vpcHex, err := identifier.Base62ToHex(vpc)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	attachmentHex, err := identifier.Base62ToHex(vpcAttachment)
+	if err != nil {
+		return ""
+	}
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s-%s", vpcHex, attachmentHex)
 }
 
-// SplitAdvertisementName recovers the (vpc, attachment) pair from an
-// advertisement name.
+// SplitAdvertisementName recovers the base62 (vpc, attachment) pair from a
+// current node-qualified advertisement name.
 func SplitAdvertisementName(name string) (vpc, vpcAttachment string, ok bool) {
-	vpc, vpcAttachment, ok = strings.Cut(name, "-")
-	if !ok || vpc == "" || vpcAttachment == "" {
+	parts := strings.SplitN(name, "-", 3)
+	if len(parts) != 3 || parts[0] == "" || parts[1] == "" || parts[2] == "" {
+		return "", "", false
+	}
+	vpc, err := identifier.HexToBase62(parts[0])
+	if err != nil || vpc == "" {
+		return "", "", false
+	}
+	vpcAttachment, err = identifier.HexToBase62(parts[1])
+	if err != nil || vpcAttachment == "" {
 		return "", "", false
 	}
 	return vpc, vpcAttachment, true
diff --git a/internal/galactic/galactic_test.go b/internal/galactic/galactic_test.go
index d1ac56a..d718ff2 100644
--- a/internal/galactic/galactic_test.go
+++ b/internal/galactic/galactic_test.go
@@ -112,9 +112,11 @@ func TestSplitAdvertisementName(t *testing.T) {
 		vpcAttachment string
 		ok            bool
 	}{
-		{"0000000jU-01a", "0000000jU", "01a", true},
-		{"0000000jU", "", "", false},
-		{"-01a", "", "", false},
+		{"e008-d54-compute-c21d3c-us-east-1-staging-lab", "eV2", "T2", true},
+		{"e007-d53-edge-567e29-us-east-1", "eV1", "T1", true},
+		{"e008-d54", "", "", false},
+		{"-d54-worker", "", "", false},
+		{"e008--worker", "", "", false},
 	}
 	for _, test := range tests {
 		t.Run(test.input, func(t *testing.T) {
@@ -127,6 +129,15 @@ func TestSplitAdvertisementName(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestAdvertisementNameEncodesBase62IdentityAsHex(t *testing.T) {
+	if got, want := AdvertisementName("eV2", "T2"), "e008-d54"; got != want {
+		t.Errorf("AdvertisementName() = %q, want %q", got, want)
+	}
+	if got := AdvertisementName("not-valid!", "T2"); got != "" {
+		t.Errorf("AdvertisementName() with invalid VPC = %q, want empty", got)
+	}
+}
+
 // The tap plugin reads this one field to decide whether it describes the device
 // to the hypervisor. Every attachment rendered until now leaves it out, so its
 // absence has to stay the default.