University supercomputers attacked by vandals Risks Digest 23.33

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 08:28:32 -0700
From: "NewsScan" <newsscan () newsscan com>
Subject: University supercomputers attacked by vandals

Network vandals have infiltrated supercomputers at as many as 20
colleges, universities and research institutions in recent weeks,
disrupting the TeraGrid, a network of computers funded by the National
Science Foundation and used in support of such scientific projects as
weather forecasting and genome sequencing. The vandals have not been
identified.  None of the systems was permanently damaged, but the
intruders gained the ability to control the various networks for short
periods of time, prompting TruSecure security expert Russ Cooper to
warn, "This could be a wake-up call to what should be very, very
secure computing environments, because these machines should never
have been compromised." The attacks were made against Unix
machines. Stanford University computer security officer Tina Bird
comments: "This incident is definitely giving us an opportunity to
reevaluate the maintenance and protection we provide to our Unix
systems.  When you're completely focused on widespread attacks on
Windows systems, it's certainly startling."  [*The Washington Post*,
13 Apr 2004; NewsScan Daily, 14 Apr 2004]
  <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8995-2004Apr13.html>

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