The Worldwide Meteor Group, the nonprofit that coordinates and publishes newbie {and professional} observations of meteor phenomena, stated its infrastructure has suffered a “crucial blow” from a cyberattack.
“We just lately suffered a cyberattack that dealt a crucial blow to growing older infrastructure, taking a lot of our website offline,” a static web page on its web site on Wednesday stated. “We anticipate a number of weeks of partial downtime as we transition to new infrastructure and providers.”
“I’m very unhappy to see the positioning down”
Within the meantime, the IMO stated it’s prioritizing the reporting of fireball observations, which might be reported right here. The group can be offering some info on its Fb web page.
The IMO has helped forge unified requirements for reporting meteor observations. Its databases of reported meteor and fireball observations—made up of textual content, pictures, and movies—are additionally thought-about important by many within the area. The IMO additionally publishes the bimonthly WGN journal, which in English is brief for Working Group Information. The physique was formally based in 1988.
It’s unclear why a company that tracks massive, fiery area objects hurtling towards Earth can be the goal of a harmful cyberattack. It’s equally unclear why somebody would need to steal its knowledge (assuming that was the motive), which is usually public.
