A cyberattack at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a non-profit institute on Cape Cod and widely recognized leader in ocean research, may come as a surprise to many people, who may be asking why would anyone want to hack into a research institution right here in Massachusetts?
The answer raises a relevant question that ultimately pertains to national defense, cyber spying and the institute’s long history in conducting anti-submarine research and ocean acoustics within the navy, dating back to the 1940s.
It turns out WHOI conducts much more than ocean life research at the institute, and perhaps that's at least one reason for the attack, which was revealed by WHOI officials earlier this week.
WGBH News Science Editor Heather Goldstone tells WGBH Morning Edition host Bob Seay, a sophisticated hacker group in China reportedly hacked into the system back in February 2013, but WHOI became aware of it this past June, and then took action such as asking employees to change all their passwords.
Goldstone says, “the hackers were not after employee credit cards or personal information. She says WHOI President Mark Abbott says the hackers were interested in cutting edge technology developed at Woods Hole, including physical oceanography and ocean engineering capabilities.”
Goldstone says confidential information is stored separately and securely and was never accessed.
She says the oceanographic institute is like many other academic institutes that experience attacks, where the hackers are after intellectual property, especially since the institute is a leading developer of ocean robotics, funded through the military.
Goldstone says one example is an autonomous underwater vehicle known as “REMUS,” which looks like a big yellow torpedo, but is used for gathering imagery and could be used by the military for mine detection or in the civilian world for sea floor surveys.
REMUS has been used on the Discovery Channel for its shark cam to follow great white sharks, and more recently with sea turtles.
11 percent of research funding at WHOI came from the military in 2014, which is down considerably from decades past, when Navy funding helped establish the Institution, according to Goldstone.
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