Earthquake Tracking Sensors Are Hackable “which could have implications from monitoring nuclear tests to planning for disaster relief”

As part of the Internet of Things, embedded sensors continue to be added throughout nearly every part of the man-made and natural environment...

By B.N. Frank

Experts have warned for many years that all wireless and/or “Smart” technology is vulnerable to hacking (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and other catastrophic issues (see 1, 2). Internet of Things (IoT) technology has a high failure rate and is also extremely vulnerable to hackers. In fact, last August, IBM warned about a security flaw in millions of IoT devices including “Smart” Meters and medical implants. In December, then-President Trump signed the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2020 to create standards and guidelines on the use and management of these devices by federal agencies.

Nevertheless, sensors that operate and transmit wirelessly are still being used for experiments like monitoring the growth of spinach and considered for crucial tasks like sewage maintenance. Another example of sensors being dangerously unreliable was recently reported by researchers.

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From Defense One:

Sensors That Track Earthquakes Are Hackable, Researchers Find

A Greek team found they could interrupt and even falsify data.

Networked sensor systems that measure seismic activity are vulnerable to hacking, which could have implications from monitoring nuclear tests to planning for disaster relief, according to Greek researchers.

The data integrity of seismic sensors is no small concern. When North Korea tests a new nuclear weapon, they usually do it underground. For outside monitors, the best source of information about those tests is usually the seismic activity they generate. While the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization uses encrypted VPNs to transfer data, making it very difficult to alter seismological data sent from monitoring devices, other independent monitors outside of that organization, such as academics, may not.

Researchers at the Institute of Geodynamics at the National Observatory of Athens found cyber vulnerabilities in several systems used to detect and calculate the location and size of tremors. These include some seismographs; accelerographs, which record the acceleration of the ground with respect to time; and Global Navigation Satellite System, or GNSS, receivers, the team wrote in a study published in the scientific journal Seismological Research Letters. GNSS receivers help measure the “displacement the movement of tectonic plates of just a few millimetres per year, volcano inflation and deflation, and smaller-scale phenomena such as landslides,” according to the UK’s Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics.

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Here's the propaganda for the "future of farming" - no mention of cybersecurity threats of embedded sensors.

Imagine when these sensors are embedded throughout the entire environment and every aspect of life...

As if it wasn’t worrisome already living near earthquake zones and nuclear testing sites…

Activist Post reports regularly about unsafe technology. For more information, visit our archives.

Image: Pixabay

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