The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense claims that pro-Ukrainian hacktivists breached the Russian Center for Space Hydrometeorology, aka "planeta" (планета), and wiped 2 petabytes of data.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense claims that pro-Ukrainian hacktivists breached the Russian Center for Space Hydrometeorology, aka “planeta” (планета), and wiped 2 petabytes of data.

  • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
    1307·
    10 months ago

    One side of me wants to cheer the Ukrainians, but the other laments that they… “hurt science”. I wish they could have stolen the data before they wiped it so it wasn’t lost, but that’s a lot of data to swipe.

    I get it, it’s just I’m sad all of that knowledge was lost. Space Hydrometeorology isn’t really relevant to war-waging. It wasn’t a strategic target.

    I will drink two toast tonight: one for Ukraine, and one for lost knowledge.

    • GONADS125@feddit.deEnglish
      513·
      10 months ago

      I agree with you completely. Any time knowledge like this is destroyed, it illicits the same feeling for me as thinking about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.

      Fuck russia, but also fuck destroying knowledge in the name of war…

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.worldEnglish
        61·
        10 months ago

        but also fuck destroying knowledge in the name of war…

        That’s why War sucks, and Humanity should never fight them.

    • Teanut@lemmy.worldEnglish
      321·
      10 months ago

      Weather forecasting is actually really important for military operations. Consider weather advisories for aircraft, for example. Or planning an offensive on a clear day.

      That said I don’t know if this place was doing climate science or weather forecasting (or both).

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      203·
      10 months ago

      I wish they could have stolen the data before they wiped it so it wasn’t lost, but that’s a lot of data to swipe.

      Ukrainian hackers could cryptolocker it and exchange the keys for Ukrainian POWs.

      • h4lf8yte@lemmy.mlEnglish
        17·
        10 months ago

        I am sure somebody would get suspicious if the servers are on 100% CPU + IO to encrypt 2 petabytes especially if you encrypt the data in place.

        • 🖖USS-Ethernet@startrek.websiteEnglish
          4·
          10 months ago

          Yup, we have certain monitors in place for if a server is maxed out above ~90% CPU/memory utilization for a certain period of time. Wouldn’t take that long for someone to realize if they were properly monitoring their systems.

    • Sprokes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      171·
      10 months ago

      I am sure they have offline backups. Also sometimes most of the data is garbage in the sense we collect anything in case we need it.

      • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
        101·
        10 months ago

        striking a vulnerable Russian target was political.

        Nothing like “science progresses us” more like “this data hurts people”

        these are not the same. and, these Ukrainian hackers probably were more badass techies than trains on discriminate strategic targeting, so they hit whatever had the weakest security. like, I get it, but if someone sat them aside for five minutes and explained that this data is valuable to humanity, and should, at least, be preserved, they would have thought twice before deleting it without preserving it— or, at least making sure the Russians had backups. (maybe they do?)

        also, as I mentioned, this action is only sorta embarrassing, not statically useful. it’s not military or strategic/spy data they deleted. this cyberattack doesn’t damage any infrastructure or anything related to war-making. it was an indiscriminate attack based, certainly, on opportunity, not static planning.

        given Ukraines recent… budget issues, I think that their innovation in drone attacks in one front they should continue to invest in both because its cheap, but also minimizes casualties. the other they should now explore is cyberwarfare. And cyberattacks should be strategic in nature. They should disable, immobilize, and/or destroy a target. Destroying priceless knowledge is just wrong and benefits nobody.