[Sixstrings]

U.S. weather system hacked, affecting satellites

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, said that four of its websites were hacked in recent weeks. To block the attackers, government officials were forced to shut down some of its services.

This explains why satellite data was mysteriously cut off in October, as well as why the National Ice Center website and others were down for more than a week. During that time, federal officials merely stated a need for "unscheduled maintenance."

...

The nation's military, businesses and local governments all rely on nonstop reports from the U.S. weather service.

The impact of the hack was real: Scientists at Atmospheric and Environmental Research in Lexington, Massachusetts were unable to send a preliminary report about weather patterns to traders and investors earlier this year.

"We were shut out entirely. That's our one source of data," said Rutgers climatologist David Robinson, whose global snow lab also relies on the satellite data.

The cyberattack on the U.S. weather system is only the latest one on the United States. The White House was hacked last month. Shortly before that, hackers breached USIS, a federal contractor that knows who has top security clearances for the U.S. government -- because it provides background checks.

Typically, cybersecurity experts blame Russia for hacks on the nation's infrastructure -- or sometimes China.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/12/technology/security/weather-system-hacked/?hpt=ob_articleallcontentsidebar&iid=obnetwork

So what can be done about this?

We can't have our weather satellites go down like this, and we do nothing.

We can't have JP Morgan and other banks hacked -- you may not like JP Morgan or a Bank of America, but you probably like your 401k and don't want that to go poof and we all like ATM machines and access to our money.

What happens if this gets worse and worse, from China and Russia?

What if weather satellites go down when we really need them sometime, like a hurricane or superstorm?

We all hate to go back to cold war and we will keep taking all this for a while, and take more excalation of it and just take it but at some point -- US gov will need to start doing things back, an eye for an eye, with Russia and China.

If they take our weather satellites down then that's not right, at some point you have to respond and take their weather satellites down too.

[Keith_McClary]

It does not say satellites were affected.

[dinopello]

Dupe

[dinopello]

Systems throughout the internet are constantly being probed and sometimes hacked. You really don't need a state's resources to do this and the vast number of probes are probably kids looking for a thrill. Of course states want to recruit these kids.

Which is why the FBI has relaxed it's marijuana usage rules.

[Keith_McClary]

The impact of the hack was real: Scientists at Atmospheric and Environmental Research in Lexington, Massachusetts were unable to send a preliminary report about weather patterns to traders and investors earlier this year.

The poor commodities speculators missed a chance at a few fast bucks.

[careinke]

Systems throughout the internet are constantly being probed and sometimes hacked. You really don't need a state's resources to do this and the vast number of probes are probably kids looking for a thrill. Of course states want to recruit these kids.

Which is why the FBI has relaxed it's marijuana usage rules.

That's because there are not enough smart people who don't smoke pot.

[Sixstrings]

It does not say satellites were affected.

Oh goodness you're splitting hairs. It says the "satellite feed" was disrupted and it all went black, they had to shut it down to stop the hacking.

The point is, either Russia or China has done another hack. Russia hacked JP Morgan and the WH, then China hacked the US Postal Service while Obama was in Beijing wearing that oriental star trek outfit.

So now we find this out, our weather forecasting. It was one of those two, China or Russia.

This explains why satellite data was mysteriously cut off in October, as well as why the National Ice Center website and others were down for more than a week.

...

"We were shut out entirely. That's our one source of data," said Rutgers climatologist David Robinson, whose global snow lab also relies on the satellite data.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/12/technology/security/weather-system-hacked/?hpt=ob_articleallcontentsidebar&iid=obnetwork

[Sixstrings]

Which is why the FBI has relaxed it's marijuana usage rules.

Wtf.

I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cybercriminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview.

That's Obama's FBI Director. Wth is happening to this country.

They can't find anyone to hire that hasn't smoked weed in the last three years???

The FBI is seriously okay with applicants smoking weed on the way to a job interview?

This is off topic, cannabis, but that just shocks me. What's going on around here lately. Everyone's smoking weed these days. I mean, now and then and rarely, okay I get that, but it's not good to just smoke weed all the time. And on the way to a job interview, for goodness sake. At Obama's FBI.

Maybe this is how the post office and wh gets hacked and climate change scientists are whining about no more climate data -- is our cybersecurity all high as a kite?

And ayahuasca is everywhere now, it's not just a thread on this forum CNN had a big thing about that, everyone's going down to Peru to get on ayahuasca.

Meanwhile in my own community, drugs have gotten rampant -- weed, everyone's smoking it, and they got their pills too and their oxy. And then there's the heroin, and the crack. It's just so gross. I'm sorry I've got to say it, but we got a drug problem in the country again.

I saw another thing on CNN about Mormons in Utah, *and even they are all hooked on oxy and pills.*

[Sixstrings]

Sorry these drugs are a sore spot for me lately. It's a problem in my city. It's just epidemic. People and their PILLS, and increasingly heroin, and CRACK. And "tina," that's some kind of ecstasy-meth combination.

Once people go down this road, they become "drug people" and it's like roaches. All they do is take. They don't go to work. They look horrible. They scam and steal. They walk around acting like a fool, they aren't safe to share the road with, it's chaos and insanity.

It's okay if it's not many of them, but when society has too many drug people past a certain percentage, that's when it's not ok and we have a lot of problems.

But anyhow, back on topic,

The weather system hack was traced to China:

Chinese hack U.S. weather systems, satellite network

Hackers from China breached the federal weather network recently, forcing cybersecurity teams to seal off data vital to disaster planning, aviation, shipping and scores of other crucial uses, officials said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/chinese-hack-us-weather-systems-satellite-network/2014/11/12/bef1206a-68e9-11e4-b053-65cea7903f2e_story.html

[Keith_McClary]

The point is, either Russia or China has done another hack.

It doesn't say that, either.

[Sixstrings]

The point is, either Russia or China has done another hack.

It doesn't say that, either.

Well Keith, what does it say then?

I've got a headache, help me out with it. I see "hacking" and "weather satellites going down" and "China."

If I'm reading it all wrong and it's little green from mars that's doing all the hacking lately, then fine please give me your version of the news.

[Keith_McClary]

The point is, either Russia or China has done another hack.

It doesn't say that, either.

Well Keith, what does it say then?

I've got a headache, help me out with it. I see "hacking" and "weather satellites going down" and "China."

If I'm reading it all wrong and it's little green from mars that's doing all the hacking lately, then fine please give me your version of the news.

It was just the websites where they post the reports. The systems that deal with the satellites are separate and (should be) behind a firewall.

It says:

Typically, cybersecurity experts blame Russia for hacks on the nation's infrastructure -- or sometimes China.

This links to an article which says:

"Attribution is almost impossible to do," he said. "Anything can be faked. People who do this stuff for a living -- and their lives depend on it -- will forge that stuff."
For instance, American, British, French, Israeli and Russian cyberspies have been known leave decoys that make attacks appear to come from elsewhere, according to several cybersecurity experts with related military experience. Only Chinese hackers have the reputation of being carelessly "loud." FBI Director James Comey recently compared Chinese hackers to a "drunk burglar."

When you compile code you can set a flag to strip out identifying labels. If they leave them in, the labels are probably faked.