Posted on 08/22/2017 4:47:18 AM PDT by Zakeet
The Navy will investigate whether two US destroyers were hacked before they collided with merchant ships in a pair of recent crashes, according to a top Navy admiral.
"2 clarify Re: possibility of cyber intrusion or sabotage, no indications right now ... but review will consider all possibilities," tweeted Admiral John Richardson, referencing sweeping new investigations announced Monday into two recent accidents involving Naval warships in the Pacific.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I agree. And what (or who) is to blame for the lack of seamanship? I would look to Obama's weakening of our armed forces by drastic cuts in funding – and by politically correct recruitment practices.
Obama's pc policies encouraged recruitment of less qualified candidates, while discouraging the kind of men who traditionally formed the backbone of the Navy.
The US Navy currently does not use lookouts anymore. They rely on their electronic systems. This policy has been in place for about 10 years.
The navy folks I work with all shake their heads over it.
I was a merchant mariner who stood many a watches as a helmsman and lookout. Even if the electronic systems were hacked, the lookouts, the bridge team, and others should have seen the ships. Perhaps there was too much reliance on electronics and not enough reliance on good old fashion seamanship-maintaining proper lookouts.
Hacked by Affirmative Action, political correctness and Barack Obama’s policies.
You can’t hack the human eyeball.
If men were on watch as required by Navy regs they would have seen the other ships on a closing course and given warning.
Your Navy folks are right to shake their heads.
The regulations for avoiding collisions at sea require that a proper lookout(s) be maintained at all times. Relying solely on electronics is simply bad seamanship.
While anything is possible, I highly doubt a “queer” would subject themselves to a grave in Davy Jones's locker but then I think of Japan's Kamikaze pilots Give it time and the Navy will come up with something.
Over-reliance on computerized automated systems, instead of actual human oversight?
Recall that Iran supposedly captured a US drone by spoofing GPS signals.
https://www.wired.com/2012/07/drone-gps-spoof/
I am sure when transiting the straights of Malacca, the most heavily trafficked sea lane in the world, there are lookouts stationed. I could be wrong.
I’m not an expert, but my exposure to technology in transportation tells me that a hack is highly unlikely. It’s one thing to hack a drone that is fully computer-operated and has no pilot, but a ship probably has less automated functions in its operation than any other mode of transportation these days.
I'm sure they employ plenty of computers, but I can't imagine that their control systems would in any way be connected to the public internet.
Did they hack the eyeballs of the crew on watch too? You can see a huge merchant ship miles away at sea. They are lite up like a Xmas tree.
No nothing about navy equipment. But it certainly had sophisticated radar and all radar, even antiquated radar has alarms. This is so basic, I just don’t get it.
Hm..didn’t consider that possibility. Also possible ‘wrong’ pronouns were used and in a fit of rage a crossdresser steered the ship onto a nearby vessel.
The captain had probably just called all hands to an LGBTQBN sensitivity course and no one was on deck to keep a watch.
“””The US Navy currently does not use lookouts anymore. They rely on their electronic systems. This policy has been in place for about 10 years.”””
This is NEW news. In all of the countless FR postings and media reports on the Fitzgerald collision there were many, many, many reports that a person stood watch on the aft and the forward of a destroyer. Are you saying everyone is wrong and that no one is on watch forward and aft?
The deckhands were hacked as well?
They would need to hack both ships, if not many others , who would have observed this slow moving tragedy take place over the course of several hours.
It doesn’t seem reasonable that two ships had no one on deck to observe their surroundings.
How is “hacking” (with a cloth?) an “80% possibility”?
Can hacking make huge cargo ships invisible to watchmen?
Well stated.
I have seen latest reports that the Navy is now removing the bodies of the dead sailors. The Navy needs a major course correction. No excuses.
Another thing to keep in mind for those of you who don’t have any Navy experience or IT experience:
These may be complicated computerized navigation and control systems on these vessels. (Disregard the FACT that there should be watchstanders with human eyes that communicate to other humans on the bridge, and that this happens independently of ANY computer system.)
In any IT system, as it operates, it generates logs. These logs are stored and kept for use in troubleshooting minor bugs.
Those of you in IT may recognize the salient points and familiarity of this fictional conversation:
********************************************************************
OOD: “Captain, I noticed that the IBNS (Integrated Bridge Navigation System) is missing waypoints that were definitely plotted in, and I have the log entries showing when they were put in, and a sailor who says that he put them in.”
CAPTAIN: “Okay. Chief, can we reboot IBNS right now? Is that a problem?
CHIEF: “Let’s do it now, sir. We have no contacts within 50 miles, and it will take five minutes to reboot.”
CAPTAIN: “Make it so.”
CHIEF: (After reboot) “Captain, I watched the sailor put in five waypoints, but only four registered. We did them one at a time and saved, and it worked fine, but putting in a number of them and saving always leaves the last one out.”
CAPTAIN: “Okay, let’s put in a ticket to NAVITCOMMAND so they can get Northrop Grumman on it.
CHIEF: (half hour later) “Captain, someone from Northrop Grumman is logged in remotely, retrieving the logs, and said he found a bug in the program. They will open a ticket. Until they rewrite and issue an update to address it, they suggest we enter in all waypoints, save, and then enter an individual one and save it. He said they are immediately sending a bulletin notification to all naval units using this system to inform them of the issue.”
CAPTAIN: “Okay, thanks. Chief, get some education out to everyone qualified on the system, once trained, sign them off, amend the procedures with the new step of manually entering additional waypoints after the initial save, and also have them verify manually all necessary waypoints are saved by reviewing them before the execute button is pressed.”
CHIEF: “Aye aye, Sir.”
********************************************************************
(note that this is fictional, I have no idea what systems they use other than finding something that sounds plausible)
So, if a system is hacked, I am pretty certain that there are logs in them, said logs containing step by step execution of commands. If someone “hacked” it, there would be evidence in the logs of system behavior. Sure, the tin-foil hat people would also say they would manipulate the logs too.
Sometimes, people, a cigar is just a cigar. And in maritime collisions, alien involvement (which has surfaced zero times in the history of maritime mishap investigation) is less likely than human error (which accounts for 90% or more of maritime mishaps)
I have never heard such a thing. Can anyone with more recent Navy experience confirm or deny this?
That sounds like insanity.
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