- On October 29, ALMA Observatory suffered a cyberattack that affects its computer systems and forced the organization to suspend astronomical observations and the public website.
- According to the announcement, the threat has been contained, and the specialists are working hard to restore affected systems.
- The attack did not compromise the ALMA antennas or any scientific data but it is not yet possible to estimate a timeline for a return to regular activities.
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array Observatory, located in Chile, announced that it has shut down its all astronomical observation operations due to a cyberattack that caused its website to go offline on October 29. The organization has started an investigation and experts are working on restoring the affected systems.
Working on the full recovery
The organization made the public announcement on November 2 and stated that they don’t know when the observatory can go back to normal operations. The organization also claimed that there is no evidence of unauthorized data access or exfiltration, thus, ALMA antennas or scientific data were not compromised during the attack.
ALMA Services Affected by Cyberattack | Last Saturday, October 29, at 6:14 AM, the ALMA observatory in Chile suffered a cyberattack on its computer systems, forcing the suspension of astronomical observations and the public website.
— ALMA Observatory📡 (@almaobs) November 2, 2022
The project was created with the efforts of the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile and it costs approximately $1.4 billion, which makes it the world’s most expensive ground telescope. It was used by the National Science Foundation, the European Southern Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other scientific groups worldwide. The organization said,
« Last Saturday, October 29, at 6:14 AM, the ALMA observatory in Chile suffered a cyberattack on its computer systems, forcing the suspension of astronomical observations and the public website. There are limited email services at the observatory. The threat has been contained, and our specialists are working hard to restore affected systems. The attack did not compromise the ALMA antennas or any scientific data. Given the nature of the episode, it is not yet possible to estimate a timeline for a return to regular activities. We are thankful for the support and understanding across the ALMA partnership and apologize for any inconveniences resulting from the recovery efforts.
We regret any inconvenience or impact experienced by our ALMA users due to this situation. We will post updates on the Science Portal when new information becomes available regarding return of services and operations. »