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HACKERS PUT TERAGRID ON QUARANTINE

Security experts are concerned over recent attacks on supercomputers at colleges, universities and research institutions which have resulted in online network research crashes. Can these machines now be used to infiltrate certain Web sites or parts of the Internet?

Operating under the condition of anonymity so as to not disrupt any investigations, sources at certain facilities cited as many as 20 organizations that had been attacked.

The Teragrid, the NSF funded data-crunching network of computers, was one of the projects hurt by the attacks. Multiple systems were hit at the lab and were not accessible to researchers for five days while investigators surveyed the damage.

The Teragrid systems at NCSA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the San Diego Supercomputer Center in San Diego were also compromised by hackers.

Though none of the systems were permanently damaged, the unknown hackers were able to access the network controls for periods of time.

Such accessibility could allow hackers to shut down huge sections of the Internet, officials said.

The power from a single high performance computer on such networks could equal that of thousands of desktop computers, giving hackers ample opportunity to wreak havoc.

Though the FBI and Homeland Security Department declined comment regarding an investigation, FBI officials did contact the attacked schools for information.

Cybersecurity experts have been warning the U.S. in recent years about possible cyber attacks on sophisticated and high end computing networks. Members of al Qaeda, for instance, are known to have investigated the security of computer systems at dams, power plants and other crucial, high security facilities.

In this case, the compromised systems seem to be strictly from academic and research sectors.

Though not part of the TeraGrid, Stanford quarantined some 30 computers that were running Linux and Solaris operating system versions. Researchers recently discovered software flaws in these versions.

After Stanford posted their problems on their web site, other officials at various institutions reported similar problems.

In addition, several systems were moved offline at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado after being infiltrated. Its supercomputer network is currently disabled and will not be running again until next week.

Although no classified data has been reported to be compromised, the hackers' security breach could lead to the loss of highly valuable time and data. And the future possibility of them obtaining sensitive material is very real.

The attackers could also use data blasts to push networks offline, much like the case in Canada where a teenager gained control of University of California, Santa Barbara computers to shut down Amazon, eBay, CNN.com and others for hours at a time.

Officials worry that a breach of these computers could lead to a government or military cyber attack. However, the hackers seem to have just been testing their options for accessibility rather than inflicting real damage.