Image via Wikipedia Hackers have mounted an attack on the Large Hadron Collider, raising concerns about the security of the biggest experiment in the world as it passes an important new milestone.
The scientists behind the £4.4bn atom smasher had already received threatening emails and been besieged by telephone calls from worried members of the public concerned by speculation that the machine could trigger a black hole to swallow the earth, or earthquakes and tsunamis, despite endless reassurances to the contrary from the likes of Prof Stephen Hawking.
Now it has emerged that, as the first particles were circulating in the machine near Geneva, a Greek group had hacked into the facility and displayed a page with the headline “GST: Greek Security Team.”
The people responsible signed off: “We are 2600 - dont mess with us. (sic)”
The website - cmsmon.cern.ch - can no longer be accessed by the public as a result of the attack.
Scientists working at Cern, the organisation that runs the vast smasher, were worried about what the hackers could do because they were “one step away” from the computer control system of one of the huge detectors of the machine, a vast magnet that weighs 12,500 tons, measuring around 21 metres in length and 15 metres wide/high.
If they had hacked into a second computer network, they could have turned off parts of the vast detector and, said the insider, “it is hard enough to make these things work if no one is messing with it.”
Fortunately, only one file was damaged but one of the scientists firing off emails as the CMS team fought off the hackers said it was a “scary experience”.
The hackers targeted the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, or CMS, one of the four “eyes” of the facility that will be analysing the fallout of the Big Bang.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Hackers attack Cern
- Hackers Hit LHC, Sorta Maybe Came Close To Actual Damage [Lhc]
- Hackers break into Large Hadron Collider computer system
- Atom smasher fired up in ‘God particle’ hunt
- Scientists cheer atom smasher success
- Mission: Unlock secrets of the universe
- LHC Webcams Depict Horrifyingly Singular Moment [Lhc]
- Hackers attack Large Hadron Collider computers to prove they’re vulnerable
- Scientists fire up giant atom smasher
- Multibillion-dollar collider to probe nature’s mysteries
- Battle Lines Being Drawn
- The Last Broadstuff Post?
- Large Hadron Collider: Your questions answered
- The Large Hadron Publicity
- CERN’s 27km Big Bang machine
- CERN Launches World’s Largest Particle Collider
- Large Hadron Collider is activated
- Scientists Try To Re-Create The “Big Bang”
- Large Hadron Collider Has Black Hole Button
- Atom-smashing experiment ready to go
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3dcf8994-900b-4e0a-9fd6-09991c1b19c6 "Hackers Attack Large Hadron Collider")
countzero 2:08 pm on September 18, 2008 Permalink |
So you’re saying a facility full of genius engineers and scientists put their -control system- on a network that faces the internet? You would think whoever is funding this project might have, oh I don’t know, some auditors around maybe. Or at least a CIO that didn’t get trained in tech by the movie Wargames. More likely the insider was either a janitor or a tourist.
And “fought off” the hackers? Did they do battle in an arena? This is also suspect, seeing how anyone intent on doing mischief could launch thousands of attacks between two eye blinks. “Type cookie you idiot! They’re going after the kernel!”
I love blatant fear mongering.
admin 2:57 pm on September 18, 2008 Permalink |
GREETINGS PROFESSOR FALKIN. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME?
In the future, network administrators will do battle with hackers in scenarios similar to that of Tron.
I, too, cannot wrap my head around WHY they would even boot a system this critical on a network facing the web. You have to expect at least 1 craigslist post coming out of this:
WANTED: Network Security Specialist
DUTIES: Secure a network that is already 300 feet underground, heavily armed and run by the smartest people in the world.
COMPENSATION: A Cookie.