Bargain Hunter(s) Read This

[admin]

“You’ve either been hacked, and you’re not admitting it, or you’re being hacked and don’t know it,”

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day. I am totally having a t-shirt printed up with that on it.

[bert.douglas]

I hope we eventually get to read a report that explains what happened. It would read something like this: Ensign Smith was posting on facebook. Ensign Jones was reading <banned word>. The video chart plotter was supposed to be showing GPS position, but was actually decoupled and was instead showing an estimated dead-reckoning position. Training requirements were waived. A software update had recently been applied that changed the way the nav-computer transitions between modes. There was a top down change in culture that de-emphasized training in traditional seamanship and ship handling, in favor of high tech weapons.

Ships do not maneuver like racecars. Everything happens in extreme slow motion.
Collisions take probably 20 minutes of continued inattention to happen.

My bet is that the people on watch were not properly trained, and were not paying attention to driving the ship.

Even if the steering computer was hacked, they should still be able to put it in reverse and come to a quick stop.

[Andres]

The really scary thing is, if they were not hacked, then they have way, way bigger problems in the U.S. Navy these days. Like how to drive a ship.

Exactly.

And buffons (in Washington and elsewhere) control more nuclear firepower than ever before.

[hlf2888]

I am leaning towards hacked also.

December 2016 F/A-18 Hornet crashes near Japan
June 2017, USS Fitzgerald crashes with container ship near Japan
August 2017, F/A-18 fighter jet crashes in Bahrain.
July 2017 KC 130 Hercules aircraft crashed in Mississippi. 15 marines and one sailor died.

Military.com | 3 Feb 2017 | by Hope Hodge Seck
In the last 12 months, the Marine Corps has sustained a troubling nine major aircraft crashes, resulting in 14 fatalities -- most of which occurred in a tragic January 2016 helicopter collision -- and 11 lost aircraft.

While many of these incidents remain under investigation, the head of Marine Corps aviation said findings so far reveal human components to the mishaps.


Google US military drones crashing...Washington Post article

[Andres]

It is all Obama's fault in pulling budget off defense allocation, thus encountering these abnormal incidents.

I disagree.
Basic seamanship, piloting and navigation does not require a high budget, just competence.
How many other navies and/or commercial operators are grounding their vessels or in collisions?

[frozen-north]

The U.S. Navy is Screwed
Gary Wetzel

Despite campaign promises to rebuild the military from the twin disasters of sequestration and the 2011 Budget Control Act combined with nearly 16 years of combat deployments, the first Trump budget for the Navy does little to look to the future.

The Navy has been in a long budgetary downward spiral since the Cold War ended.

Three successive administrations—Clinton, Bush, and Obama—didn’t prioritize resources in a way that kept the Navy properly funded and a pillar of strength. One political party is not to blame—this is a bi-partisan collapse of responsibility and abject ignorance across 25 years.

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-u- ... 1795662679

[at46]

“You’ve either been hacked, and you’re not admitting it, or you’re being hacked and don’t know it,”

That is the funniest thing I have heard all day. I am totally having a t-shirt printed up with that on it.

If you think you haven't been hacked, you're in the hands of professionals.

[at46]

I am leaning towards hacked also.

Can't blame you https://code.google.com/codejam/contest ... scoreboard (Canadian #4 is a Russian immigrant also).

[admin]

Many years back a pentagon red team was able to hack and take control of a nuclear sub. Nuclear as in 'big bang'. They quit publishing those sorts of results a long time ago.

As every systems admin knows, the systems admin has the keys to the castle. How many 18 year-old systems admins rotated through the design, construction, and operation of those ships over the years? Especially, keep in mind these were ships designed through the 80's, built in the 90's. There is some very old crusty tech in those "high tech" ships. Much of it is probably in the form of proprietary special built systems, that can no longer be updated or patched. I am sure the old crusty admirals that still have VCR's flashing '12:00', think they are in charge of their ships, while some kid that worked on the systems 20 years ago, (now in his 40's) is laughing from a computer terminal somewhere.

[admin]

I think there is also a general misunderstanding among the public of what 'hacking' means. Rarely does hacking involve taking full control of system, or at least that is much harder to do. For example, taking over all of ship's systems and say driving it in to the beach is a lot of work, without someone noticing.

The most common, devastating, and easiest hacks, are simply making a system fail to do it's job. In this case, we have a system that failed. I guess broadly you could call them "denial of service attacks", but even then people think of web sites being overwhelmed with data or something similar. They are often just breaking something simple, so the whole system fails. Burning out a servo on the steering system. Killing a sensor. Reversing the running lights. something stupidly simple, but mission critical, that no one thought to defend.

My all time favorite was a bunch of security experts were called to testify in front of congress regarding the possibility of voter machines being hacked. One was asked by congressman how he would hack the voter machine that was setup in the room. He got up from the table, walked over to the machine, and unplugged it.

[thisisreallycomplicated]

"Was USS John McCain Collision a Cyber Attack?=> Over 1 Million Counterfeit Parts From China Found in US Military Equipment"
"A senate investigation in 2012 found over one million counterfeit parts used in the US military."
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/08 ... equipment/

That was back in 2012, so all the plumbing should be failing right about now.

[eeuunikkeiexpat]

I think we need another whistleblower. Maybe via Snowden (very quiet lately hmmm...) or Assange to leak the deal. Office of Naval Intelligence must have some clue.