back to article Report fingers China for assault on Australian weather supercomputer

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports that China has been fingered as the source for a very substantial attack on a supercomputer operated by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). The BoM is an analog of the UK's Met Office and the USA's National Weather Service. Like those agencies, the BoM provides weather …

  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    WTF?

    And yet

    We continue to run around like dogs on heat to trade with these fascist bullies.

    1. sandman

      Re: And yet

      That's a really unfair way to describe Australians ;-)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My forecast is for a gradual increase in global trade agreements which will bring a decrease of the use of the word "national" in this sort of article, followed in coming years by heavy rains of the phrase "corporate espionage".

  3. xybyrgy

    Other Uses?

    Perhaps this computer was engaged in some more sensitive government related crunching?

    1. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: Other Uses?

      Like measuring the amount of global warming caused by the methane coming from the mounds of utter bullshit pouring out of politicians mouths?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Other Uses?

      A big technology investment of the 19th century was the telegraph from Australia to England that allowed wool traders to deal on the London futures market. This kind of stuff is big business - which is why the Met Office charges for tailored forecasts for farmers.

      The Chinese economy is known to be slowing, and a stalled economy would probably result in a revolution that swept the Communist Party out of office - it was economic failure than did for Soviet Union communism. So knowing what the Australians think is going to happen to the weather - and finding out how they do it - could be very significant.

  4. David Roberts
    Coat

    Hanging is too good....

    ....for anyone who tries to interfere with the pinpoint accuracy of the Australian weather forecast. Bastards. Could ruin Xmas and the New Year parties at Bondi.

    In related news the NZ weather forecasters turned off the firewall with a hopeful expression.

    Mine's the one I wear when it's sunny and forget when it's raining. Mind you, NZ weather is tough to forecast more than 30 minutes out (depending on how far you can see).

    1. MrDamage Silver badge

      Re: Hanging is too good....

      Bondi xmas and new year parties have already been ruined by the hordes of unwashed backpackers who descend upon the beach and proceed to spew everywhere.

      Sure, all that chum attracts fish, and that attracts sharks, but the lifeguards ruin it by sounding the shark alarm so nature doesn't take its course.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Excuses

    Well the BoM now has an excuse for why non of their recent published 'updated' temperature records are anywhere near the originals.

    http://joannenova.com.au/2015/09/ideology-adds-heat-to-the-debate-on-climate-change-jennifer-marohasy/

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: Excuses

      Alternatively

      http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Joanne_Nova

      1. Diogenes

        Re: Excuses

        Oh very good - play the (wo)man. clap clap

        You mean the weather bureau didn't "homogenise" all the data sets and won't explain its working (the very antithesis of science) ?

        You mean these homogenised datasets don't have some minima higher than maxima ?

        What would you say if you knew that the official Perth thermometer was accurate at recording minimums for most of time in October in the eighties, but 0.7°C too warm all of December, and 1.2°C too cool in January? Bizarrely that same thermometer was back to being too warm in February! Try to imagine what situation could affect that thermometer, and require post hoc corrections of this “monthly” nature. Then imagine what could make that same pattern happen year after year. All those weather reports we listened to in Perth in 1984 were wrong (apparently). And this bizarre calendar of corrections is turning up all over Australia.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Excuses

          http://judithcurry.com/2014/07/07/understanding-adjustments-to-temperature-data/

          Is the issue that data is adjusted, or that it's not clear how it's done?

  6. Triboolean
    Coffee/keyboard

    Weather data?

    If they hacked a supercomputer, wouldn't the first step be to install bitcoin mining software and call it something like cloud_predict.so and grab its output data?

  7. Boothy

    Why can they even connect to it

    Why is this thing even connected directly to the net?

    Shouldn't there be some isolation going on here? And not just a Firewall, something like an ESB.

    All the users connect to the broker, and it then validates the security and the requests before passing on to the super.

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