CERN’s LHC Webserver Hacked

CERN is so busy smashing atoms they forgot to patch their webservers. A hacker crew broke in through a web vulnerability and defaced a website.

From the Reg here:

Web defacers hacked into the computer network at CERN to spray digital graffiti on a website connected with the Large Hadron Collider project last week.

A previously unknown crew calling themselves “GST” or “Greek Security Team” broke into a site involved with the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, damaging files and leaving a lengthy message that said in part “We are 2600 – dont mess with us”. The attack created a potential opening to plant malware on the site, but there’s no evidence this happened and it seems that the hackers involved were simply showing off.

In response to the web defacement attack, atom smashing boffins took the site – cmsmon.cern.ch – offline. It remains unavailable at the time of writing on Monday morning. The site is connected to the the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment, the project that will oversee one of the four detectors at the LHC, analysing the sub-atomic debris from proton collisions due to begin at the facility around the turn of the year.

It would be a shame if all of the money CERN spent setting up the world’s largest and fastest particle accellerator is wasted because scientists have a reason to question the validity of the data that represents the results of experiments.