When thinking of typical targets of cyberattacks, astronomers likely don’t come to mind. And yet, the website of the International Meteor Organization has been dealt a “critical blow” that could put it largely out of commission for several weeks.
Founded in 1988, the International Meteor Organization (IMO) is a nonprofit scientific association that publishes amateur and professional observations of meteor phenomena. The Belgium-based group is made up of astronomers from all over the world whose observations are compiled into a robust, publicly available database of photos, videos, and telescopic data. That data is highly valuable to researchers, members of the media, and anyone interested in these space objects.
IMO has also played a leading role in creating global standards for reporting meteor observations, and it publishes the bimonthly WGN journal.
Given that the data is already there for the taking, it’s hard to imagine what might motivate someone to launch a cyberattack against this organization, but in a statement posted to a static page on its website, the IMO said the attack damaged “aging infrastructure,” so it was likely an easy target.
You can still report fireballs
IMO is actively working to get its website up and running again, and it has already restored the page where people can report fireball sightings.
Fireballs are unusually bright meteors, or shooting stars, that outshine the planet Venus. According to NASA, their exceptional brightness is due to their larger size. Since they contain more material, they produce much brighter flashes when they enter Earth’s atmosphere and heat up. Sometimes, they explode or break up in the atmosphere, and astronomers call this phenomenon a “bolide.”
These objects are much easier to observe than smaller meteors. By recording many of these events in detail, astronomers can refine constraints for numerical entry models and gain a better understanding of orbital dynamics as well as the distribution and frequency of atmospheric entries. This may be part of the reason why the IMO prioritized restoring this part of the site.
Sitting ducks
This isn’t the first time a research organization has suffered a cyberattack. As Ars Technica reports, there have been several in recent years. In 2023, for example, the American Meteorological Society was hit by a ransomware attack. That same year, someone hacked into the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab facility, forcing it to temporarily suspend observations at the International Gemini Observatory.
The IMO incident highlights the vulnerability of scientific organizations to cyberattacks. Many of these groups are strapped for funding and operate with out-of-date digital infrastructure, making them easy for hackers to infiltrate. While the motive behind the IMO attack remains unclear, it’s possible that the hackers were simply scanning the Internet for vulnerable systems and stumbled upon this organization. It would certainly be surprising if they were deliberately targeting an astronomical database.
For now, we’re left to wonder what actually happened, and why. Here’s hoping the IMO can get its site up and running again soon.
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