[Tech] Massiccia intrusione nella rete TeraGrid

I sistemi informatici di oltre venti istituzioni scientifiche, universitarie e di ricerca connesse al network ad altre prestazioni TeraGrid, finanziato dalla National Science Foundation, e ad altre reti ad alta capacità hanno subito intrusioni da parte di "hackers" (questo è il termine usato dai media nel riportare la notizia: sarebbe più corretto però parlare di "crackers") non meglio identificati:

Hackers infiltrated powerful supercomputers at colleges, universities and research institutions in recent weeks, disrupting one of the nation's largest online research networks for several days and raising concerns among computer security experts that the compromised machines could be used to attack specific Web sites or parts of the Internet.



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The hackers' identities remain unknown. None of the systems were permanently damaged, but the hackers gained the ability to control the various networks for at least short periods of time.



With that much computing power at their disposal, the hackers could have launched an assault capable of disabling large portions of the Internet, said Russ Cooper, a chief scientist with Herndon, Va.-based TruSecure Corp.



Even harnessing the power of one high-performance computer on a high-speed research network could give intruders the attack resources equal to hundreds -- if not thousands -- of desktop computers, Cooper said.



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The incident underscores years of warnings from cybersecurity experts in the government and private sector that the United States could suffer a major electronic attack at the hands of ever more sophisticated online criminals. In June 2002, The Washington Post reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had monitored al Qaeda operatives probing computer systems at dams, power plants and other critical infrastructure facilities.



Bird said the attackers appear to have sought out machines in academic and high-performance computing environments.

Fonte: Yahoo! News.