Sep 12, 2008 08:00 PM
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Bad news today at the Large Hadron Collider, that big-bang tester everyone's been nervously joking about all week: Some badasses who call themselves the Greek Security Team hacked computers at the facility. In fact, they got in so deep, say reports, that they were "one step away" from cracking into the computer control system of one of the LHC's "detectors." Sounds scary, but it seems that, for scientists, it was more irksome than apocalyptic.
The so-called GST posted a menacing message at cmsmon.cern.ch, the website of the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment team, which apparently closed with: "We are 2600 - dont mess with us." (Clearly, they didn't let proper punctuation get in the way of their dastardly schemes.) Eventually they were fended off. CERN spokesman James Gillies said, "There seems to be no harm done. From what they can tell, it was someone making the point that CMS was hackable."
But even if they had broken through to the next network, it isn't clear whether they could've commenced Operation: Space-Time Rift. Says the UK Telegraph:
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."
In related news, here's yet another nervous LHC joke. [Telegraph UK - Thanks Jason and Henry!]
Send an email to Wilson Rothman, the author of this post, at wilson@gizmodo.com.
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