We’re a little late to this party, but it’s too fun not to share. Last week, a group of Brazilian hackers decided to get the NSA back for all its spying with a big huge cyberattack. And hack they did! The only problem is that they mixed up their acronyms, and hit NASA instead.
All in all, the hackers took down 14 different NASA websites affiliated with the Ames Research Center. The message they left actually went beyond the NSA’s spying habits and straight into conspiracy theories:
NASA HACKED! BY #BMPoCWe! Stop spy on us! The Brazilian population do not support your attitude! The Illuminati are now visibly acting!
Obama heartless! Inhumane! you have no family? the point in the entire global population is supporting you. NOBODY! We do not want war, we want peace!!! Do not attack the Syrians.
NASA? The Illuminati? The entire global population? These are some pretty lofty — and tragicomically misplaced — accusations. After all, doesn’t everybody love NASA because they landed a really expensive SUV on Mars and invented space ice cream and stuff?
It would appear that the Brazilian hackers inserted that extra “A” unknowingly, but it could’ve been intentional. As Slate points out, the same hacker went after four NASA domains in April, and NASA is a popular target for cyberattacks because of its lax security.
Either way, Brazil is definitely upset about being the NSA’s most-surveilled country outside of the United States. Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff just cancelled her state visit because of recent revelations and is trying to purge the US presence from its internet. If the country does up the ante and take the diplomatic dust up further though, Brazil should double check its acronyms. [Slate]