Cyber attacks close telescopes including one on MK

[TomK]

There has been a spate of cyber attacks on major telescopes around the world, including those on Mauna Kea.

"Cyberattack shutters major NSF-funded telescopes for more than 2 weeks"

"A mysterious “cyber incident” at a National Science Foundation (NSF) center coordinating international astronomy efforts has knocked out of commission major telescopes in Hawaii and Chile since the beginning of August. Officials have halted all operations at 10 telescopes, and at a few others only in-person observations can be conducted."

https://www.science.org/content/article/...re-2-weeks

Also, e.g., https://www.iflscience.com/mysterious-cy...eeks-70340

[HiloJulie]

Well, that's brilliant!


What can be gained by hacking a telescope? Or is it just solely an attempt of financial ruin by more or less shutting it down? That's got to be an enormous cost.

(Jokingly, I'll say in my Joe Friday imitation voice - "Round up the usual Puna Web suspects ma'am!)

[TomK]

Well, one would probably assume there's a financial gain involved in the hacking, otherwise, why do it unless you're just an asshole? However, as you can imagine, very little information is being given out right now, and even if I have more info, I wouldn't share it at this point. I just posted what is publicly known at this time.

[randomq]

Probably just random ransomware attacks where they scramble your data and then demand a big ransom to fix it. They hit hospitals too, which is really disgusting.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The first thing that came to mind when I read about the cyber attack was whether Hawaii telescopes, AMOS on Maui for instance, were assisting India in their moon landing attempt.  India doesn't have a 24 hour world wide earth-moon radio network. Most observatories in Hawaii are not radio signal transmitters, but a rogue cyber attack might take out more facilities than necessary?  

Why?  Sour grapes?  

Now for Chandrayaan-3, USN has been requested to assist with LEOP and orbit raising support using its Hawaiian earth station. USN hereby seek FCC approval for a 30 day Special Temporary Authorization to support the lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 for LEOP on its way orbiting the moon.

Quote above is from a link which opens a NASA forum:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=0CDQQw7AJahcKEwiYy6aFmfSAAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fforum.nasaspaceflight.com%2Findex.php%3Faction%3Ddlattach%3Btopic%3D49471.0%3Battach%3D2181807&psig=AOvVaw2YAa1EWgEy5gALFehqwpao&ust=1692928643990039&opi=89978449

[terracore]

I read this today which I thought was interesting:

"India's success today can be attributed to "extensive changes" to its landing strategy after Chandrayaan-2's 2019 crash, Bhardwaj said. Onboard algorithms that calculate spacecraft speed in real time during descent were reworked to allow for "more freedom to deviate" from protocol "but still do the landing," he added."

https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-...ng-success

[TomK]

Given the nature of the attack (it involved very few facilities that might or could be involved in the Indian Moon landing), I suspect the motivation is something else.

[randomq]

Any chance those facilities can image the moon well enough to see the wreckage from the Russian attempt? Might be a good test target when they come back online!

[TomK]

It would depend on how big the crash site is but I doubt any ground-based optical observatory could resolve such a site. A ground-based optical telescope, at the very minimum, would need a 100-meter diameter optical primary mirror to just barely resolve the Apollo landing sites and we don't have any of those yet.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the laws of physics do put a lot of constraints on things despite what you might read on the internet - or on PW threads.