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UK Atomic Weapons Web Traffic Accidentally Routed Through Ukraine

Tyler Durden's picture




 

With the most intense US-Russia proxy war in recent memory still festering in Eastern Ukraine, Washington has been keen on sending a strong message to the Kremlin. Even as US allies in Europe are busy fostering global instability by supporting infrastructure development in Asia and waffling on providing “defensive” weapons to Kiev, Washington is working hard to shore up the world’s defenses against tyranny. For instance, just last week the US took the following steps to make the world a safer place for democracy: 1) delivered 120 armored units, including tanks, to Latvia, 2) advised Vietnam to stop allowing Russian bombers to refuel at a former U.S. airbase, and 3) suggested that the UK’s excessive “accommodation” of China is getting dangerous. 

Despite Washington’s best efforts to promote stability, things keep getting in the way. As RT reports

Sensitive data from around 170 major companies, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, might have been compromised after British Telecom web traffic was accidentally rerouted through Ukraine.

 

The hijacking of the companies took place over a 90-minute period Thursday, while many British Telecom customers experienced diverted traffic for five days, starting from Saturday, Dyn, Internet performance company, said in a report.

 

Several UK government bodies were affected by the problem, including the Royal Mail and the country’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, which is “responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent.”

Here’s more from Dyn Research

Beginning on Saturday, Ukrainian telecom provider, Vega, began announcing 14 British Telecom (BT) routes, resulting in the redirection of Internet traffic through Ukraine for a handful of British Telecom customers.  Early yesterday morning, Vega announced another 167 BT prefixes for 1.5 hours resulting in the rerouting of additional traffic destined for some of BT’s customers, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, the “organization responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent.”

Ok, so web traffic intended for the UK agency in charge of nuclear bombs (which, according to its website, “works to keep the world safe by delivering nuclear warheads”) was accidentally routed through Ukraine — no big deal, because surely this type of sensitive information isn’t susceptible to being commandeered. 

Here’s RT again, quoting Dyn: 

...the sensitive data was put at risk as routing is based “entirely on trust, it’s relatively easy to commandeer IP address space that belongs to someone else.

 

Unnecessarily sending the data to Kiev may have made it possible for employees with privileged network access to Ukrainian telecom provider Vega to monitor or tamper with data that wasn't encrypted end-to-end using strong cryptography."

Bottom line: in a world where Nutella-eating, Twitter-savvy extremists are creating their own social networks, the West needs to expend more resources to ensure the inviolability of sensitive web traffic. 

 

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Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:41 | 5892278 wendigo
wendigo's picture

Accidentally my smelly ass. 

Well, maybe actually. Incompetence vs malice and all that. 

My only concern about the damn things is whether or not madmen control them. 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:43 | 5892294 knukles
knukles's picture

Don't forget.  If it's connected to the ether-space, it's everybody's free game to read and see the crap.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:51 | 5892319 DetectiveStern
DetectiveStern's picture

BT provide my internets. The connection was noticably worse last week with constant disconnections.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:58 | 5892339 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

routing is based “entirely on trust

BGP? Muahaha

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:18 | 5892396 svayambhu108
svayambhu108's picture

RT lately is stealthy, $tealthy in propaganda...

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 06:02 | 5893506 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Paging Mr, Philby.

Mr. Kim Philby to the front desk. please.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:18 | 5892572 Urban Roman
Urban Roman's picture

Apparently Cyber Berkut has discovered one or more of those precious  0days built-in to every Cisco box by the NSA.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:54 | 5892324 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

Retaliation for the UK signing on to the Chinese-led SWIFT payment system alternative?

 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:05 | 5892740 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

Inadvertent software modification during a routine NSA / GCHQ search . . . .

Or maybe the Russkies / Chinese / NK are trying their hands at some "pre-festivities" hacking, just to keep in shape for the "Big Event"??

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:57 | 5892345 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

The dry cleaners around Aldermaston will be doing brisk(and smelly) business tomorrow.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:03 | 5892728 Parrotile
Parrotile's picture

Burghclere too - that's where they did the "hands-on" stuff (i.e. systems assembly)

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:59 | 5892348 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

"Sensitive data from around 170 major companies, including the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, might have be compromised after British Telecom web traffic was accidentally rerouted through Ukraine."

170 companies...that's a lot of targets. While everyone's looking at the UK Atomic Weapons Establishment and Lockheed Martin, is the real target buried deeper on that list?

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:25 | 5892415 indygo55
indygo55's picture

Finally it all is starting to make sense. Dick Cheney is now in charge and Obama is out. Well according to Victoria Nuland.

 

http://www.eutimes.net/2015/03/cheney-gives-the-orders-not-obama-us-offi...

 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:46 | 5892471 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

Agree knukles.  If you know anything about computers/software/Internet you know that NOTHING is secure, and I mean NOTHING.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:30 | 5892613 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Anything that uses software and an interenet connection is vulnerable. Hackable, software by it's very nature is hackable.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:02 | 5892721 Volkodav
Volkodav's picture

especially this:

http://community.topcoder.com/tc?module=AlgoRank

topcoder rankings

20 of top 50 Rus, or Russian Schools including top 3 places

top amer 14th  with 6 places over twice the population

even poles have 3

asia strong and chine more placings recently

 

 

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 07:05 | 5893557 Arnold
Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:01 | 5892352 booboo
booboo's picture

Maybe time for the public to censor .GOV.

Again..... the most dangerous and irresponsible entity(s) when it comes to any type of weapons is your own government. The biggest polluters. The biggest armed gangs. The biggest violators of civil rights, employment oppurtunity, property rights, theft, conspiracy, and the list goes on.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:21 | 5892588 Urban Roman
Urban Roman's picture

.

My only concern about the damn things is whether or not madmen control them.

For a brief interval, it was "madmen --> ??? --> madmen". The happy ending is that it's back to simply "madmen --> madmen" now.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 23:57 | 5893266 NaN
NaN's picture

Ukraine is where Target got exploited.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:41 | 5892288 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

If the US is trying to sneak a nuke into Ukraine, the game is over.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:11 | 5892374 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

The launch codes are on Hillarys deleted phone server hard drive.

/sarc

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 22:48 | 5893139 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

There's a backup on pastebin; it's all good.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 06:06 | 5893507 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Linked to a 'sophisticated' 3-d printer at an unknown IP address.

PING

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:43 | 5892293 phoolish
phoolish's picture

Cylons

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:31 | 5892616 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Guardians of The Galaxy more likley. It is 2015 afterall.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:45 | 5892298 Dragon HAwk
Dragon HAwk's picture

when somebody posted this  on one of the other zh  messages he got a zillion downvotes.  maybe some people need to apologize. /s

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:17 | 5892391 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Grow some hair on your balls. No groups hugs in the ZH fight club.. I remember that post. All kidding aside. 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:39 | 5892644 Volkodav
Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:34 | 5892435 The Joker
The Joker's picture

Downvotes are candy...eat 'em up.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 22:21 | 5893062 The Joker
The Joker's picture

HEY MR. DOWNVOTER...     FUCK YOU MAN!!!

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:51 | 5892301 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture
For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at all Minuteman Silos in the United States Was 00000000

But the British are smarter - so their nuclear launch code is 12345678.  Besies, Putin has no agents in Kiev.

Carry on, old chap.  No harm done. God save the queenie - does anyone else matter?

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:02 | 5892353 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

13571113.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:07 | 5892530 Sanity Bear
Sanity Bear's picture

800000085

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:58 | 5892706 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

8765309

Hidden in plain site all along.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 22:53 | 5893153 Chauncey Gardener
Chauncey Gardener's picture

Winner, winner--chicken dinner! Hat tip for the Tommy TuTone reference!

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:48 | 5892308 kowalli
kowalli's picture

so USA want to deliver uk nuclear bomb to Ukraien and give all information to them via internet

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:51 | 5892320 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

Accidentally my ass...call a DNS attack what it fucking is.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:59 | 5892708 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

BGP is a better bet.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 22:40 | 5893115 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

True. Did they poke all those Cisco routers that ate shit on 512k day just so and was it route summarization hacks or fun with multi-exit desc? ;)

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:55 | 5892322 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

OT: Eight members of Ukraine's main opposition party have committed suicide since late January.

2 shot themselves with a rifle, one shot himself in the neck, 2 have jumped from the balcony of a tall building and two hanged themselves without leaving a suicide note. The final one was found dead in his garage.

8 suicides of the opposition party in less than two months - it seems perfectly unremarkable to me.

https://m.facebook.com/TruthfromUkraine/photos/a.1462094710680543.107374...

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:38 | 5892446 The Joker
The Joker's picture

What's your point?  It's probably cloudy there.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 06:12 | 5893510 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Seasonal Affected Disorder - SAD

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:45 | 5892462 Omen IV
Omen IV's picture

Check out Poland - much much worse - over 15 Suicides and today multiple politicians have posted "if" they wind up dead - they will never commit suicide that's how bad it is

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:02 | 5892723 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Can you post a link for that?  Searchie McSearchsearch isn't finding anything like that.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:05 | 5892739 Volkodav
Volkodav's picture

links? 

angliski links please, not many ZH speak polank

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:36 | 5892633 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

I have been following the rising death toll in Kiev. A reckoning, a purge, is going on inside Post Coup Kiev. Expect more deaths of  members of the "Party of the Regions", the former ruling party before the Coup and establishment of a Junta Government. The large number of Nazi Battalions and the secret police being handed over to known Nazi Party members makes death by suicide very likley to continue.

The EU and USA are to be congratulated for their many public experssions of concern over the growing death toll of politicians in oppostion to the Junta. The freedom and liberty of western values remains well protected by Western oversight in Kiev.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:17 | 5892801 Volkodav
Volkodav's picture

I had not heard this also.  Someone post link dead poles?

What I know is oligarch mafiya is more at each others throats,

while they have multitude total serious enemies than year ago,

 

 

 

 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:39 | 5892637 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Poland? I haven't heard. I will look into that. Perhaps a purge there too in order to establish a more firm NATO hold on Polish political life?

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:56 | 5892330 Moccasin
Moccasin's picture

90 minutes is a nice amount of time to infect networks and cover tracks. The default position for any IT administrator after an incident like this is to assume that their network is compromised.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 22:59 | 5893161 Chauncey Gardener
Chauncey Gardener's picture

Could be the checksum was 8765309? It was in plain sight, afterall.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 02:31 | 5893391 lemonobrien
Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:03 | 5892357 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Who they trying to kid. Every newbie tech dude that attends monthly linux meetings knows that the internet is public and that there is so much dark fiber still in the ground from Enron that governments or utilities have no reason and therefore don't have sensitive data on the internet: unless of course government entities put it there intentionally.

 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:22 | 5892407 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

That was Tyco. Remember when Iran's under water fiber cable got snipped? 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:04 | 5892358 krage_man
krage_man's picture

Does the author have any idea about public key criptography?

All is encripted so no matter how you route traffic it is secure... 

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:01 | 5892518 GMadScientist
GMadScientist's picture

The boys in Langley simply adore people like you, but they do have a soft spot for the mentally challenged.

Let's just say the little 128-bit key protecting your traffic is analogous to locking your home with a garbagebag twist tie.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:07 | 5892750 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

I highly doubt any of that traffic was encripted.  More interesting would be to see what was unencrypted.  Perhaps the people who redirected traffic were able to (read: absolutely capable) of injecting a spoofed stream of traffic that appeared to come from this or that target bearing sensitive information meant to be captured by certain parties in Ukraine as a means to cover tracks the day said sensitive information is deployed in the physical realm.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 23:01 | 5893168 Chauncey Gardener
Chauncey Gardener's picture

It was on Hillary's home server, that's why she had to delete those 30,000 emails pertaining to "yoga."

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:08 | 5892366 Herdee
Herdee's picture

Russia then has the information because nothing goes on there without Russia knowing and there's the possibility that rogue right-wing neo-nazis within the Ukrainian Military also have it.Nice unsafe agreements that Washington has with London on anything nuclear.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:37 | 5892442 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

USA: NSA

RF: National Cyber Agency.

All your stuffs are now Vlad's.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:27 | 5892852 Volkodav
Volkodav's picture

15 year old in Tomsk can do that...

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:34 | 5892434 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

"accidentally."

Hhaaahhahhaahaha!

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 19:52 | 5892460 Prometheus Unbound
Prometheus Unbound's picture

If Russia needed to re-route UK nuclear weapons data through the Ukraine, then either the currency issues made them angsty or everything you've ever read is a lie. Because they already know. 5 Eyes is smarter than this.

Just look at the data: http://whois.domaintools.com/dynresearch.com

https://www.google.com/maps/place/258+Searle+Ave,+North+York,+ON+M3H+4C1...

 

This important research site is run out of a Canadian suburb? In all these cases, look around the local area for the joke. Shaftesbury St, Waterloo Avenue. Codsell Ave. Cocksfield Ave.

Pesky little elves, funny. Problem is, you keep using the same joke. What will you do when the new ones come?

I will admit that was some pretty good geolocation trolling though. Much better than when you got the Guardian to publish an app challenge over privacy rights next to the 7/7 location. It must be so fun imagining you have a place in this world.

“Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.
Elves are bad.”

T Pratchett, died too young.

 

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 06:19 | 5893514 Arnold
Arnold's picture

Yes, but he didn't know he was dead at the end. I am somewhat envious.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:05 | 5892524 Coldfire
Coldfire's picture

"Accidently". Ha, ha, ha. Ho, ho, ho. Hee, hee, hee. Goddamned warpigs.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:08 | 5892534 Seize Mars
Seize Mars's picture

More bullshit from the warmongers. Lies. There are no accidents.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:23 | 5892593 Cautiously Pess...
Cautiously Pessimistic's picture

Reads like a script you know?  We are rushing headlong into MAD.  If you have not ever watched, 'On The Beach' or 'Threads', give them a whirl.  Very sobering movies about nuclear war....

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 20:54 | 5892692 AmarUtu
AmarUtu's picture

When you back door harder than Elton John you end up getting back doored yo self fools..

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 21:10 | 5892766 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Since it went on for days do you really think that this is the work of an outside party?  Seriously.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 02:58 | 5893415 Jano
Jano's picture

If UK security depends upon any internet connection, then it is an easy task for any adversary to take down UK.
What a bullshit journalism this time!
This is though a boulevard style of information.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 03:50 | 5893442 Firewood
Firewood's picture

“works to keep the world safe by delivering nuclear warheads”

Mind boggling Orwellian insanity from the dicks who invented it.

 


Mon, 03/16/2015 - 04:07 | 5893446 Victor999
Victor999's picture

Funny how when the West delivers nuclear warheads it 'keeps the world safe', but when other nations deliver nuclear warheads it 'destabilises the region'.

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 04:46 | 5893463 Cryogenic
Cryogenic's picture

Came across this website what appears to be a new low for Ukraine, crowd funding project for their military.

I guess when you are down and out, desperate times calls for desperate measures.

http://www.peoplesproject.com/en/

Mon, 03/16/2015 - 08:40 | 5893708 _SILENCER
_SILENCER's picture

If you think data like this goes over the same Internet we have access to, you're on glue.

This story is nonsense.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!