A new spectre is haunting Europe: cyber attacks on universities and research centres. In the past few weeks, the largest German research computer in Jülich, Stuttgart and Garching, Germany, hackers were paralyzed, and the supercomputers at the universities of Dresden, Freiburg and Karlsruhe. On Wednesday, the University library of Cologne reported the complete failure of your Server, the University of Bochum hit it three weeks ago. The administration has to do in Corona-emergency on its hands, was broke, and the students have absolutely no access to your University, is neither real nor virtual. The University of Giessen, which was forced in December by hackers in the knee, has not recovered to this day.
the three largest supercomputers have been operating only partially. With other words: The science is a big part of their computing capacity for weeks. Important research work on energy or climate research are on ice such as research on the Coronavirus. Short-term there are no Alternatives. The gigantic computing the volume of that Computer is in the amount of not replaceable. And complex simulations such as in climate science, need the computing power of a supercomputer. The calculator in Stuttgart and Garching are among the ten fastest in the world, Jülich something ranked behind it. The damage the discretion.
How often to hacker attacks embarrassed Silence. Science policy, the otherwise reliable when Innovation slows or digital technology is driven not advancing quickly enough to stay silent. Probably you are clueless. Because in contrast to the biological Virus, there are computer viruses according to the experts, hardly any protection. You liked to keep it for a bad joke, as four years ago, the printer at several German universities, such as from spirit hand moves racist pamphlets spewed. It was the first indication that the danger from everywhere can come. University computer centers are for Hacker easy prey. The greater the number of users and the components of a system is, the harder it is to protect.
The government
That Computer, which is considered high security areas, are similarly vulnerable, comes as a surprise. Probably the Virus was introduced in the UK and spread like wildfire to other European data centers. The networking of science, the Achilles heel in this case.
The first assumption, according to which the attack had the Corona research in the visor, has not been confirmed. Data were apparently not stolen. This confirms, according to the experts suspect that the hijacked networks were used for the production of crypto currency such as Bitcoins. Bitcoins are known to be nothing more than computer codes, with tremendous energy needs. To guarantee your safety, you must always be more computing power mobilized.In order to satisfy the hunger for energy, are, apparently, many middle-right. In the hacker scene an outspoken nihilism reigns. It is to be done, whether a computer network to be used for the advancement of science or health.
For universities, the cyber-attacks are a constant stress test. Imagine a business without management and customer contact. Personal data were not stolen, is it in Cologne and Bochum. This is not to say Vice versa: Safe the personal data, if it is apart of the Hacker on it. This experience makes the Federal government just with the abundant perforated School-Cloud of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute.
