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Many times, when mentioning technological advancements, it is in the context of making tasks easier for man to do and keeping his life safe. In the military aspect, technology often replaces man in the battlefield, as seen in use of umanned vehicles, whether on ground on by air, as well as acomplishing fast calculations needed to effectively defend against aerial threats. But it seems that nothing comes without a price, as technology hold many dangers if hackers with malicious intents manage to take over critical technological systems and cause great damage without the operator ever knowing. The danger of technology is even greater when it comes to weapons.
Last Tuesday a German newspaper reported that there’s a suspicion that hackers have managed to access a Patriot missile battery which belongs to the German army and is stationed on the border between Syria and Turkey. The newspaper claims that the possible entry point through which the system’s defense was infiltrated was either the software connecting the missile system to the launcher itself or by penetrating the chip which is in charge of directing the missile mid-flight. Furthermore, it’s not yet clear if the attackers managed to gain remote control of the Patriot battery or settled for only stealing the data.
The German Defense Deprtment stated that it is not yet perfectly clear whether there was a break-in into the defense system or not, but as a reaction, the existing battery was replaced with a different kind which is supposed to be safer from cyber attacks. As opposed to Germany’s hesitance to confirm or deny the reports, a former agent of the British Intelligence Agency, MI5, claims that the fact that American weapon systems are exposed very easily to cyber attacks is a well-known fact, and so the report comes as no surprise.
