889091 wrote:zeke wrote:edu2703 wrote:Aviation Sources in Russia report that Rosaviatsia fell victim to a hacker attack started on last Saturday (Mar 26th 2022), which wiped out their entire database and files consisting of 65 Terabytes of data including e-mail of 1.5 years, documents, aircraft registration data. ... Rosaviatsia blames the success of the hacker attack (presumably carried out by the Anonymous Hacking Group) ...the head of the agency is still in office.
Another source suggesting a cyber attack
https://www.aviation24.be/miscellaneous ... r-back-up/
Playing devil's advocate here...
Who's to say they (Russia) didn't just 'conveniently' wipe out the data themselves, then blame Anonymous. They're able to then start again and 'wipe the slate clean', so to speak. Aircraft that were previously due for a heavy maintenance check now get a reprieve/reset and can continue flying for the time being.
My turn, to burnish my "pseudo-expert" cred. I am in Software Engineering and Security. So I just did some digging.
1) 889091: Russia most certainly did not destroy the entirety of their regulatory data for the convenience of wiping the slate clean. This did massive damage to their aviation infrastructure. Furthermore, Russia didn't blame Anonymous. The Press assumed that Anonymous did this. I don't think Anonymous did this. Why?
2) Anonymous denied it. An anonymous.. uh.. Anonymous press contact (he/she/they) said: "everyone I know is saying it wasn't us... Anonymous will never endanger the lives of civilians".
3) Me, just looking at the archives: I see some glaring holes just in the security of the Rosaviatsia (the Russian aviation authority)'s website. Which is to say nothing of whatever their database infrastructure was. I have no clue. But so what. It's just a website, right? Having said that, I do have a theory.
4) I think whatever security vulnerability allowed this hack... was leaked to someone, somewhere, from within the Agency. To take it down.
Back to Russian Aviation. Let's talk about something called
Nginx. Russia's aviation database, like the
plurality of ALL major web applications use this technology. I won't go into the details of what that is. It's a technology like Linux. It was developed by a well-meaning person for nerdy reasons, and ended up changing the world. In case of Linux, by a kid in Finland named Linus Torvalds in 1991.
Nginx? This was created by a well-meaning Russian kid named Igor Sysoev in 2004. It appears that he had been harassed and arrested by the Russian government as recently as late 2019. (Obviously, he's pretty damn valuable to, well... a LOT of companies worldwide, so business intervened in his release). Check out his Wikipedia page.
In any case, the point of all this? I believe the Russian Aviation industry is highly professional. Just MAYBE someone inside may have facilitated this hack, in defiance of Putin (like he'd have any clue anyway), to preserve the safety of their flying public. I'm sure the writing has been all over the walls for months... It's not like Igor had anything at all to do with this.
IMHO: The industry that takes technology more seriously than any other in the world? Commercial aviation. They are responsible for millions of lives each day. And that goes for Russia, too.
I could be (and probably am!) wrong. But that's just my $0.02 as a software security guy.