South Pole Research Station Hacked Twice

Marda writes "It's been known for a while that Romainian cyber extortionists cracked the computer network at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station last year. Now SecurityFocus is reporting that another computer intruder penetrated the station just two months before, and cracked the data acquisition system for the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), a radiotelescope that measures properties of the cosmic microwave background. It turns out the station was insecure 'purposely, to allow for our scientists at this remotest of locations to exchange data under difficult circumstances,' according to internal reports."

Comments

well i'll be damned

[Anonymous Coward]

i had no idea there were computers in antarctica, let alone networked ones.

i've always wanted an .aq host so i can go on irc like "ac@i.live.in.aq" and everybody will say "WTF?! there are computers in aq?"

Hrm, well

[dedazo]

I suppose they weren't running Windows or any Microsoft product, because it would have been helpfully pointed out again and again in the article and the Slashdot submission.

Furthermore the discussion would be about how scientists are 'stupid' because they don't use Linux (preferably Gentoo would be my guess) instead of about security or cracker ethics and so on.

Uncanny.

Re:slashdotters don't have a fucking clue, as usua

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for the compliments, asshole. I leave for Pole in 6 weeks. I was hired for all I know how to do: systems/network administration.

I bet you're one of the beakers who think because they know physics they know how to correctly lay out systems and networks. I wouldn't think to advise a physicist on how to do his work; physicists shouldn't try to do mine.