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:
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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.”
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(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)
“While a cigar is just a cigar, I don’t believe in coincidence” Leroy Jethro Gibbs
The only “unknown” variables on these ships is man. With policy changes happening daily, disgruntled sailors acting out is definitely in play. The ships redundant systems are easily diagnosed and repaired, if needed. It only takes a few in a group to f**k things up royally.