Angry Brazilian Whacks NASA To Put a Stop To ... Er, the NSA
90
An anonymous reader writes "From the Register, "Multiple NASA websites were defaced last week by a Brazilian hacktivist who may have misread the sites' URLs, because he wasn't protesting about the US space agency giving joyrides to inhuman stowaways – he was protesting against NSA spying. 'BMPoC' hit kepler.arc.nasa.gov and 13 other sites with messages protesting against US spying on Brazil, as well as a possible US military intervention in Syria. It's hard to believe anyone would confuse the NSA spy agency with NASA, the space agency, except for satirical purposes or to mock script kiddies in some way, so we can only guess that the hackers behind the attack hit NASA because it's a US government agency whose systems are noted for being insecure.""
Oh great you had to say it didn't you.. (Score:5, Funny)
he wasn't protesting about the US space agency giving joyrides to inhuman stowaways
Now we're gonna be in for another round of hacking..
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's fine, but there's lotsa other towns in Saskatchewan that are very nice too.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Not that far off the mark (Score:5, Interesting)
The dimensions of the Space Shuttle were specifically designed to carry large spy satellites. Many early scientific missions were spy missions in disguise. So NASA has been in bed with the intelligence complex for quite some time.
Re:Not that far off the mark (Score:5, Informative)
Most satellites have vaguely the same dimensions. A shuttle that "carries satellites" carries most kinds of satellites. Also, most of them are put into orbit by conventional rockets, rather than the shuttle.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Fuck NASA. Collateral damage.
It it's theirs? It's a target. Hayden started this shit - now he deals with the consequences.
Re: (Score:2)
The 'convergence or confluence' theory was confirmed later in the day by a former spacecraft designer, who declined to be named but is familiar with both programs, who confided unequivocally: "The space shuttle's payload bay was sized to accommodate the KH-9."
Re: (Score:1)
Complete nonsense. Satellite dimensions vary wildly, from the size of a paint can to the size of a bus.
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe not. I don't think that the KH-11 [wikipedia.org] would fit in the shuttle [wikipedia.org].
I'm pretty sure a large cargo bay would be generally useful in itself.
Re: (Score:2)
Hubble fit in the space shuttle, and Hubble by most accounts is a KH-11 (with some modifications for astronomical purposes).
Regardless, US military satellites are launched using regular rockets (Titan IV, Delta IV, those kinds of launcher). It's a lot cheaper for basic satellite insertion (not to say the Shuttle didn't have some military purposes, at least in it's design, just that they are not spy satellite launching).
KH-12 (Score:2)
The Misty satellite is believed to have been derived from the KH-11, but modified to make it invisible to radar, and hard to detect visually. The first Misty satellite, USA-53, was released by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-36. The satellites are sometimes identified as KH-12s.
That's the NRO, not NSA (Score:3)
And if you have problems with photo satellites, well then there are going to be a lot of countries, and private companies, you have an issue with. There are lots of sats looking down at the Earth.
Re: (Score:2)
And both are National-somethings of the same country.
the other doesn't have public websites to deface so much though. the protest is against the american public.
Re:Wrong Motive! Wrong number... (Score:2)
Exactly. The "mistake" gets more traction than an attack on the NSA. After all, attacking the NSA servers has never managed to make the headlines, and it never will for obvious reasons.
I seem to recall when our previous President was told about a Brazilian, he replied, "How many is a Brazillion?"
Re:Low hanging fruit (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Low hanging fruit (Score:5, Funny)
Well, a Brazilian Waxed NSA means that you can't blame it on Bush any more . . .
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
NASA NSA (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe he thought NASA was NSA without the A-hole..
Re: (Score:2)
The NRO runs the US intelligence sats, not the NSA (Score:5, Informative)
The US intelligence community is fairly compartmentalized in to a bunch of agencies that do different things. For satellites, it's the NRO, National Reconnaissance Office. The NSA is signals intelligence, intercepting phone calls, radio communications, e-mail, that kind of thing. Hence all the stuff that has leaked about what they've been doing.
Also NASA (in tandem with NOAA and the USGS) operates a number of Earth facing sats like the Landsat series. They aren't all that high resolution, lower resolution than the stuff you see on Google Earth, since they are for monitoring things like vegetation index and so on. The newest one, Landsat 8, has some pretty badass multi-spectral sensors.
Re:NASA NSA (Score:5, Insightful)
One has a $16 billion budget.
The other nearly $60 billion.
Guess which is which?
Re:The cause of war. Outnumbered (Score:3)
If Brazil attacked NSA Web site then Congress will send the military to Brazil. .
I dunno...How many are there in a Brazillion? It sounds like an awful lot....
Not that hard to believe, actually (Score:1)
It's hard to believe anyone would confuse the NSA spy agency with NASA, the space agency
Either the author has had zero contact with Average Joe, or he is seriously overestimating the IQ of the general populous. There's only a single letter of difference between the two acronyms; they can easily be confused with each other by anyone unfamiliar with either of the two agencies.
Add to that the fact that the the hacker was Brazilian and probably didn't speak English as his first language, I would see this as being extremely plausible.
Re: (Score:2)
It's hard to believe anyone would confuse the NSA spy agency with NASA, the space agency
There's only a single letter of difference between the two acronyms; they can easily be confused with each other by anyone unfamiliar with either of the two agencies.
Add to that the fact that the the hacker was Brazilian and probably didn't speak English as his first language, I would see this as being extremely plausible.
Mod the parent up! In the first place, why should somebody in Brazil care at all if some TLA is the same as some FLA or not?
Re: (Score:2)
NASA is quite known, and NSA has been in the news for quite some time; one with technical skill enough to deface a website would at least have a good enough education to know the difference between both, regardless of English knowledge.
I bet the defacer was either thinking "if I can't deface NSA, I'll deface NASA to send my message regardless" or drunk.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you overestimate the education required for script kiddies to run their scripts.
Re: (Score:1)
Whilst I would expect someone involved enough to start hacking their servers would be better informed, the general population are *very* uninformed about foreign politics. Forgiveable given the local politics mirrors a soap opera.
I made reference to the NSA & recent events during a meeting at a state department here & only one person in the room had any clue what I was talking about.
Not a typo (Score:2, Insightful)
They're both agencies of the same stalker country.
One is provider for the technology the other one uses for spying purposes.
Both coordinate with CIA and Pentagon.
And it is quite common to take over any popular gov site in order to promote same gov's evil plans.
I find naive at least to presume this hacker just confused their names, or misread them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Oh Great (Score:5, Funny)
You know what, I want to stop the NSA too, so let me go hack the NBA website
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Not enough TV. (Score:2)
Like NSA spying... (Score:5, Insightful)
Like NSA spying, the hacker just caught some "innocent bystanders" by accident. It wasn't illegal hacking, just an honest mistake. Just like the NSA collecting information on innocent people while claiming to target terrorists.
North American Security Agency (Score:1)
The grand unification will soon be upon us. Eventually to follow: C(entral)ASA and S(outh)ASA. It's a no-brainer. N.S.A > N.A.S.A., C.A.S.A. & S.A.S.A.
.
Same entity (Score:1)
So, they attacked a different department of the same entity (The US government).
That's not that big of a mistake. Imagine if someone chose to embargo the entire country of Cuba, just because they didn't like the Cuban government. Now that would be a much bigger mistake, than attacking a part of the US government because the US government is trying really hard to stop the "But we are still better than North Korea" excuse.
The Real Story (Score:3, Funny)
What few people realize is that Brazil is a quite popular destination for our friends visiting from the arid climes of the red planet next door. What with the Amazon - world's largest river - , the Atlantic Ocean and the /rain/ forest, they are quite in love with that nation's water-rich climate. So many Martians visit Brazil and more than a few have learned the language. It's a known fact: Martians love Brazil.
But - as Earthlings have a problem with the NSA spying on them - so Martians take issue with NASA. Giant telescopes in the sky watching everything they do, immense electronic ears eavesdropping on the universe, and robotic drones pushing their telescoping probes into unwanted places; there is increasing upset with NASA's activities amongst non-terrestrials. Oh sure, NASA says it is "for the science" but it's a government agency (worse, an /American/ government agency; the US's reputation has spread even to the stars); when have they ever told the whole truth about their motives?
This isn't, of course, the first time that Martian hackers have expressed their displeasure; one need only remember the Denial of Service attack on the Beagle 2 lander (although this was of course never admitted by NASA officials, preferring to blame the loss on "technical failures"). And one need only visit the Chryse Planitia to see all the graffiti sprayed on the Viking 1 lander espousing their dissatisfaction with NASA policies*.
So this was no "confused Brazilian" who targeted the wrong website; this was a calculated statement made by an extra-terrestrial warning that the tempers are flaring regarding the recent actions of the American space agency. It was not the first such warning and surely will not be the last. The only unusual part of this story is that the "hacktivist" in question performed his vandalism while on his vacation. And that he had three tentacles, was green and had antennae.
Don't let the mainstream media blind you to the truth! Reign in NASA before it leads us to interplanetary conflict!
* yeah? Prove me wrong! ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
NASA hacked (Score:1)
Sounds more like... (Score:1)
"Angry Brazilian" sounds more like an Urban Dictionary term for the visible inflammation or irritation that follows an incompetent bikini wax/shave.
OK, who rolled the database back to 2013-09-18? (Score:2)
OK, who rolled the Slashdot database back to 2013-09-18? This is at the top of Slashdot on 2013-09-24.