Angered By The NSA, But Confused By Acronyms, Brazilian Hacker Defaces NASA Websites

from the take-that,-surveillancestronauts! dept

Thu, Sep 19th 2013 7:40am — Tim Cushing

If you're going to go after the world leader in untargeted data collections, you might as well be just as unfocused. After details of the NSA's spying efforts in Brazil drove the president to cancel her trip to the US, some of that anger spilled over to the public. And a certain member of the Brazilian public, one "BMPoc," decided to lash out in the most internet of ways -- by defacing websites linked with the intelligence agency. The only problem was BMPoC was one letter off.

Multiple NASA websites were defaced last week by a Brazilian hacktivist who may have misread the sites' URLs, because he wasn't protesting about the US space agency giving joyrides to inhuman stowaways – he was protesting against NSA spying.

“BMPoC” hit kepler.arc.nasa.gov and 13 other sites with messages protesting against US spying on Brazil, as well as a possible US military intervention in Syria.

Ah, NASA. The non-spy agency whose efforts over the years have resulted in a number of technological advancements we take for granted. NASA is a very, very, VERY outwardly focused agency, which perhaps explains why its internal controls are so lax it's referred to as the "low hanging fruit" of the government website defacement field.

What the hacker lacked in accuracy, he made up for in successful hits and enthusiasm. The following warning graced unsuspecting NASA aficionados for several hours earlier this week.

NASA HACKED! BY #BMPoCWe! Stop spy on us! The Brazilian population do not support your attitude! The Illuminati are now visibly acting!

Obama heartless! Inhumane! you have no family? the point in the entire global population is supporting you. NOBODY! We do not want war, we want peace!!! Do not attack the Syrians.

Coherent, it is not, thanks to the language barrier, a fundamental misunderstanding that all acronyms are not created equal, and the obligatory Illuminati reference. NASA, duly chastened by orders to cease all "spy" and change its unsupported attitude, released the following statement.

"A Brazilian hacker group posted a political message on a number of NASA websites. ... Within hours of the initial posting, information technology staff at the Ames Research Center discovered the message and immediately started an investigation, which is ongoing," he said. "At no point were any of the agency’s primary websites, missions or classified systems compromised."

In other words, the attack was about as harmful as graffiti. Perhaps even safer considering it wasn't scrubbed off the "walls" by a group of low-level criminals putting in community service hours.

Other than the wrong acronym and the Illuminati, BMPoC is absolutely correct. Brazilians do not support the NSA's spying or attitude and most of the world is very definitely not supportive of the US engaging with Syria. (Well, "engaging" by way of bombs, missiles and boots on the ground, anyway.)

If the secret to fighting a successful battle is knowing your enemy, BMPoC is no Sun Tzu (or even Ambrose Burnside, for that matter). On the plus side, website defacing is much more anonymous and less prone to crippling embarrassment than an in-person protest -- especially one that finds the protester a few blocks away from his or her intended target, yelling at equally confused people about actions they never took and things they never said.

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Filed Under: brazil, hackers, nasa, nsa, nsa surveillance, protest

32 Comments

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Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 6:47am

Since he's throwing the Illumanati reference around, maybe he really thinks NASA is involved via the mind control satellites or something.
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out_of_the_blue, 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:50am

Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!
Or are anomalies only valid "proof" when it's some automated takedown system?

This guy clearly knows that "the secret to fighting a successful battle is" to gain publicity for your efforts! You'd never have heard of him except for this "mistake"! Well played, BMPoc"!
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Glen, 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:53am

As the immortal Bob Uecker would say: "Juuust a bit outside."
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:54am

Well someone's going to hear about this at the BMPoc Christmas party.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:12am

Re: Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!
But all hackers (hint: not crackers) are nuts.

You try to spend 5 hours looking at a few thousand lines of spaghetti C code that hasn't been touched in months looking for a bug that only happens once in a blue moon.

It's like staring at the Necronomicon...except that - unluckily for you - you won't get the easy way out and get eaten by aliens...though your boss might chew on you a bit for screaming in the office.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:15am

Not that far off.
NASA is the agency which delivers the spy satellites into the sky, further NASA is still a part of the U.S. military, therefore a fair target. And looking at NASAs poor record of network security, seems to be an invitation for trying to access a military network.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:15am

Re: Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!
You are pants on heads retarded.

Hackers hack, takedown systems make bogus requests. Neither are anomalies and neither should be ignored.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:34am

Re: Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!
>Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!

Says the biggest nutball on Techdirt.
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Michael, 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:41am

Re: Not that far off.
NASA is a civilian agency - they are explicitly NOT part of the US military.
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Arthur Moore (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 8:43am

Re: Not that far off.
Umm, no. That would be the National Reconnaissance Office. Furthermore, NASA is no more part of the military than any other government agency. Seriously, that was one of the founding principles of the organization.

http://www.nro.gov/about/
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 9:06am

NASA, NSA... Eh, close enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 9:32am

Hitman: I killed your Jone, now pay me the agreed upon $50,000.
Man: You killed my brother? No, I wanted you to kill Jane my annoying wife who's going to divorce me!
Man: Jone, Jane, close enough for me.
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Brazilian Guy, 19 Sep 2013 @ 9:58am

Well, that happened over ten days ago, and truth be told, that isn't the first time that brazilian hackers go after NASA - see Wanderley de Abreu J�nior "Storm" in 99. Anyway, i agree with the points made in the article - NASA was victim of an horrible mistaken identity case.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 10:10am

now that's strange. given all the spying they do, all the conversations and mail they listen to and read, all the terrorist plots that have been foiled because of all the spying and surveillance they do, how come they didn't know about this and even more to the point, how come the security on the NSA website, the supposed dogs bollocks of security agencies, the saver of worlds, didn't have good enough security to stop a hacker?? uhm??
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haik (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 10:18am

"Within hours of the initial posting, information technology staff [..]discovered the message"

Within hours?!?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 11:09am

Add one more to the list of clueless douchebags that live in Brazil. Right, Ninja?
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Jeremy Lyman (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 12:22pm

He knows what he's doing.
How do you think the NSA got all those spy satellites up there? Some kind of Secret NASA? SNASA?
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John Fenderson (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 1:40pm

Re: He knows what he's doing.
Mostly the NRO. Space was occasionally leased on the shuttle for launching spy satellites, too, but that doesn't make NASA a military agency. It makes NASA an occasional military contractor.
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Anonymous, 19 Sep 2013 @ 2:27pm

Re: Re: Not that far off.
Or is that what the government WANTS you to believe?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Sep 2013 @ 5:57pm

Re: Re: Anomaly proves ALL hackers are nuts!
out_of_the_blue just hates it when due process and context are enforced.
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G Thompson (profile), 19 Sep 2013 @ 7:18pm

This reminds me of a time long long ago where a little thing known as a WANK worm hit NASA too..

"You talk of times of peace for all, and then prepare for war."

Oilz for the WIN!!!

[I wonder if anyone knows what I'm talking about ;)]
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 1:12am

Re: He knows what he's doing.
The miltary has their own shuttles. They don't need NASA to send up satellites.
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Moose42, 20 Sep 2013 @ 8:18am

Re: Reading Comprehension Fail
Try actually reading the article before posting. LOL.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 10:17am

What's next?
So, what's next for this Brazilian Hacker Group BHG? Maybe, they'll target the CIA, but mistaking hit the ICA (International Coalition of Arsonists) That will teach them..
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 10:29am

Re:
Sure, that's you people's modus operundi.. discredit all the (isms) and go on your way!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Sep 2013 @ 7:31pm

LOL
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Anonymous, 9 Oct 2013 @ 1:27pm

Don't be stupid, we know what we can do !
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Anonymous, 9 Oct 2013 @ 1:28pm

If you don't want to be the next target do not talk about things you don't know.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2013 @ 9:39am

Re:
Did you even read the article? The hackers attacked the NASA website, NOT the NSA website. NASA does not spy on semi-literate Brazilian hackers. They don't have too much security on their websites (as stated in the article) because nobody with a political agenda should actually be targeting them.
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Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2013 @ 9:44am

Re:
Unsurprisingly, the folks at NASA are more concerned with doing science than messing with their website. They get barely more than table scraps when it comes to funding, despite all of the important contributions they make.
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Xcx, 27 May 2017 @ 1:33am

!
!
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Odracyr, 3 Mar 2021 @ 12:41pm

Re:
Wanderley is just marketing. Nowadays he doesn't now how to open a Linux terminal
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