Part of the computer system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was hacked into as the world's most powerful physics experiment got under way. A group calling itself the "Greek Security Team" hacked into a computer connected to the system last Wednesday.
A spokesman for Cern, the lab that houses the LHC, said the hackers put up a message on the facility's website. No harm was done but the incident has highlighted the need for security in the LHC's network, the spokesman said.
The hackers had targeted the computer network of the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment (CMS), a huge detector that analyses data from the particle accelerator.
With the world watching as the first particles began circulating in the LHC, engineers were searching the hacked computer for possible malicious damage.
The CMS website displayed a page with a mocking message, in Greek, which included the line: "We are 2600 - don't mess with us". As a result of the attack, the CMS webpage www.cmsmon.cern.ch, can no longer be viewed.
Cern spokesman James Gillies said that the compromised computer was not connected to the accelerator itself.
"The computer is used to monitor one of the experiments at the LHC, it's nothing to do with the LHC accelerator itself or any of the control systems," he said.
Mr Gillies said the LHC had a general access network and a more restricted access network which controls the sensitive systems.
"As far as I understand there was one user somewhere - who wasn't a hacker - who uploaded something on to this machine and inadvertently introduced a weakness that allowed people to get in," he said.
"Our IT department is constantly reminding the experimental collaborators of security issues regarding the network and will continue to do so," he said. "This may have strengthened their message."
The number 2600 is often used by the hacking community. It is believed to have originated in the US in the 1960s with the discovery that a tone of 2600Hz played down the line could be used to access restricted parts of the national telephone system.
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- JJ3000
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This shows me that the bulk of the human race is not mature enough for the knowledge that is likely to come out of the experiments done on this machine. We need to fund the human based sciences just as thoroughly as the physical sciences are to allow for the knowledge of how to relate to one another on a different basis than negative emotive means. One clue that I have which I don't know what to make of is that when people communicate with one another openly with trust that relationships pop out that can be really nice. Much better than those relationships based upon mistrust and closures. Perhaps someone will find a way to enable this transformation from mistrust and closure to trust and openness. Then your machine would make a lot more sense to me. As it is, I merely see it as a machine for one group or another to attempt to control the information flow out of for that group's own purposes. Such information needs to be used by people as a whole and not exclusively for any one or more groups in this world.
