In a shocking turn of events, a cyberattack has brought the largest National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded telescopes to a halt. Since the beginning of August, 10 telescopes in Hawaii and Chile have been shut down, causing astronomers to look for alternatives and valuable viewing windows to disappear. Cybersecurity experts wonder why hackers attack just such objects.
The first cyber incident was detected at the NOIRLab, the NSF's focal point for ground-based astronomy. The Gemini North telescope, located in Hilo, Hawaii, was the first to suffer. The quick response of NOIRLab's cybersecurity specialists prevented physical damage to the observatory, but its work was immediately stopped. The outage also extended to the Gemini International Observatory, which operates the Gemini South telescope in Chile .
The Gemini telescopes, with their imposing 8.1-meter mirrors, have played an important role in various astronomical discoveries, including the birth of supernova and the discovery of the black hole closest to Earth. Now that remote control is no longer possible.
Gautam Narayan, an astronomer at the University of Illinois, expresses his determination to the astronomical community to keep going despite difficult circumstances. "We are all in this together," he says. The loss of observing space is a serious blow to researchers who rely on these telescopes for their research.
NOIRLab took the extra precaution of disconnecting its computer network from the Medium Scale Observatories (MSO) network in Chile, making it impossible to make remote observations with the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco and SOAR telescopes. Eight other telescopes in Chile have also stop their operations.
The exact details of the cyberattack remain shrouded in mystery, with NOIRLab providing limited information to both the public and its employees. The center did not confirm if this was a ransom attack, in which hackers demand money in exchange for control of an object or information. However, NOIRLab's IT staff is working tirelessly to get the telescopes back up and running.
This incident highlights the vulnerability of scientific facilities to cyber threats and raises questions about the motives behind such attacks. Cybersecurity experts are wondering why hackers would need to attack telescopes that help us understand the universe. While investigations continue, scientists and researchers have to come to terms with the loss of valuable observation time and look for alternative solutions to continue their work.
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