Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Don't Worry, Be Happy. They Were Only Missiles.

Sure, they were sophisticated, Patriot missiles, belonging to the German military. And, yes, they were in Turkey along the border with Syria. Defending a NATO ally, okay?  Fine, so far so good.

Everything was just dandy - and then the missiles began doing things, responding to commands only they weren't coming from the Germans.  Hackers had briefly taken control of the missile battery.

According to German website Behoerden-spiegel, the German owned military paraphernalia were reported to unexplained commands sent by hackers. At this current time, location of where the hackers sent their commands from and the nature of these commands remain unknown. According to the source, the individuals that penetrated the security measures of the missile battery might have found two possible ways to seize momentary control of equipment.
One was they must have taken hold of the Sensor-Shooter-Interoperability (SSI) system that connects both the missile control system and launcher.
The second was that they must have taken control of the programming of the computer chip that is ultimately responsible for guiding the missiles towards the intended target.

According to experts, hackers could have stolen valuable information from the operating system of the missile battery, which would have granted them access in the first place.
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3 comments:

  1. Toby7:57 PM, July 07, 2015

    I probably missed it but I can't find if the hackers actually fired any missiles.

    Some day, in the near future, I expect hackers to be able to take control of missiles and drones and turn them back on those who pulled the triggers. For example, can you imagine some operator in Oklahoma or on a carrier sending up a drone and ten minutes later finding it turning around and coming home firing all weapons? I expect the Chinese are close to this and they might be willing to sell the ability for money or favours.

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  2. ThinkingManNeil8:06 PM, July 07, 2015

    I believe the operative term here is "Oh crap"...

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  3. Northern PoV9:11 PM, July 07, 2015

    "I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals."

    So can you guess the author?

    The year?

    Cheers

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