This reminds me of an old BOFH story.
Sweden 'secretly blames' hackers – not solar flares – for taking out air traffic control
Sweden suspects a hacker group linked to Russian intelligence was responsible for an attack on its air traffic control systems last November, it is claimed. Air traffic control systems across much of Sweden were unavailable on November 4. Computer problems meant air traffic controllers were unable to use their displays, an …
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Tuesday 12th April 2016 19:39 GMT Destroy All Monsters
Might be but...
Harrumph!
From "solar storm" (so, WAS there a solar storm or not?) to precise finger pointing ("an elite hacking crew linked to the Russian military intelligence service GRU") and general wobbling of the knees (" Vattenfall might come under attack") in 15 seconds?
And why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes? And make it obvious that they can, indeed, do so? Cyberdickwaving is not a good enough reason.
This sounds suspiciously like someone from NATO elicited an urgent statement showing a "clear and present danger" to aligned countries (a "secret" statement, say no more!). NATO is currently under attack in the Transpondian Homeland as a White Elephant Looking for Aggro, costing lots, not being paid for by Europeans and which should rightly have been dismantled back in the 90s as the US occupation forces and medal generator that it is.
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Tuesday 12th April 2016 20:08 GMT Bc1609
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
Your guess is as good as mine, but it wouldn't be the first time. In 2013, Russia practiced bombing raids on Sweden (Newsweek link, and an FT report on the same incident); last year Russia was caught flying military jets over the Baltic with their transponders turned off; the year before that the same trick nearly caused a collision with a civilian airliner (Reuters report).
Russia (under any name) hasn't exactly got a great record when it comes to relations with their "peaceful" neighbours.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 00:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
> "Russia (under any name) hasn't exactly got a great record when it comes to relations with their "peaceful" neighbours."
That's because "Russia" (whatever that is) has no natural boundaries worth mentioning. Russia is a big juicy target and an invader can just march right in, theoretically. Not so theoretically, sometimes.
It makes the Russians very suspicious and defensively minded.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 04:32 GMT MacroRodent
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
Russia is a big juicy target and an invader can just march right in, theoretically.
But note they have not kept Russian territory, or even haven't marched out in one piece! Just ask Napoleon or Hitler.
The size of the country means it is completely impossible for anyone to conquer Russia, as long as the Russians do not completely drop the ball on defence. Their paranoia is unjustified.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 08:48 GMT David Neil
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
Russian Academy of Science estimate
Deaths caused by the result of direct, intentional actions of violence 7,420,379[56]
Deaths of forced laborers in Germany 2,164,313[57]
Deaths due to famine and disease in the occupied regions 4,100,000[58]
Total 13,684,692
Yeah, God knows why they are paranoid
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 05:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
Russia (under any name) hasn't exactly got a great record when it comes to relations with their "peaceful" neighbours.
Russia has never considered them particularly peaceful. I suggest you look up "contraband of strategic goods to Germany through Sweden in WW1 and WW2" for a detailed explanation why.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 09:26 GMT MacroRodent
Re: Why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
14,000 in their full time combined forces?
Someone has dropped the ball! The UK has about 150k by comparison.
Well, Sweden is surrounded by friendly nations, they have Finland as a convenient buffer zone towards Russia, they have no past or present overseas territories to defend, and unlike the UK, have stayed out of wars for the past 200 years. Then the cold war ended and perpetual peace appeared to arrive to at least western and northern Europe. So they dropped the ball.
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Tuesday 12th April 2016 20:35 GMT Graham Dawson
Re: Might be but...
Russia and Sweden do have a historically adversarial relationship, probably dating back to the days when Sweden held most of the Baltic coast. The Swedes developed a healthy paranoia about Russian designs on the scandinavian peninsula during the cold war and are still convinced that there are Russian submarines lurking off the coast, just waiting for the right moment to sink Stockholm and nuke Dalarna. The Russians, meanwhile, have long memories and are undoubtedly holding a grudge about the Swedish assault on st Petersburg.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 00:15 GMT Bob Dole (tm)
Re: Might be but...
>>And why would Russia randomly be stressing out peaceful Swedes?
Maybe because the Swedes aren't likely to do anything other than lie to their people and privately complain about it? Even if they were inclined to do more than moan and groan, I don't think the 10 people they have in their army is much of a deterrent.
All in all, it seems like a decent country to do a "live test" exercise on. They are decently advanced and have no real offensive capabilities whatsoever.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 00:37 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Might be but...
I thought you were making it up about the Swedish force size, but no, you weren't.
Wikipedia reports it here.
Looks like the Swedes let their defense lapse at the same rate as the decline of the Soviets. Well, what do they do now with a resurgent Russia? I know, I know, the Chicken Dance...
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Tuesday 12th April 2016 20:51 GMT allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Are they sure it's not a glitch in the system due to code reuse?
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Tuesday 12th April 2016 23:29 GMT Vic
I find it interesting no one has pointed out that it was done at great risk of innocent flying passengers.
No it wasn't. It was done at great risk of passengers being delayed at originating airports.
ATC uses computers predominantly for performance reasons. If it all goes dark - as it did for NATS not so very long ago - the planes get to their destinations safely, but new flights aren't allowed to join the melee.
Vic.
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Wednesday 13th April 2016 20:31 GMT hopgen
There was a indeed a medium size solar flare causing an extremely intense solar radio burst
exactly at the time and with the same temporal behaviour as the radar disturbances in Sweden.
I am a professor in Space Physics in Sweden and lead an independent scientific evaluation of the
solar event, which is confirmed both by my colleagues at NASA, and leading solar Scientists in Switzerland, France, Belgium and Ireland. The news about Russian cyberattacks are wrong and at best reflect the chaos everybody was in during the days immediately after the event when we had not yet enough time to analyse our data properly.
We are preparing a scientific publication, which will be published when the Swedish air
authorities have finished their report. We are in constant contact with LFV, and they agree with our conclusions and our data agrees with their disturbance pattern.
We have also informed Eurocontrol in Brussels and given presentations at
scientific meetings like e.g in a keynote lecture at the European Space Weather Week in Oostende in Nov 2015. SO far we have not found one single expert who would contradict our observations and findings after we presented all the data available.
However I agree that the Swedish authorities are unduly late in publishing their report, thus inviting
conspiracy theory completely without reason. The reason for the delay is unexplained to me.
Best regards, Hermann Opgenoorth , Prof in Space Physics, Uppsala Sweden
Biting the hand that feeds IT
