From welivesecurity.com
Several high-performance computers working on COVID-19 research have been forced offline following a string of attacks
Multiple supercomputers across Europe that are working on COVID-19 research have been targeted by cryptocurrency-mining attacks over the past week. The reports of the incursions started pouring in last Monday, when supercomputers in the United Kingdom and Germany were among the first victims.
The UK’s National Supercomputing Service ARCHER was the first to announce that it’d disabled access to its system following the exploitation of its login nodes. The incident is under investigation; according to the notice on the organization’s website, all of the Secure Shell (SSH) keys and ARCHER passwords will be rewritten and no longer be valid. “When ARCHER returns to service all users will be required to use two credentials to access the service: an SSH key with a passphrase and their ARCHER password,” said the center.
Meanwhile, the Baden-Württemberg High Performance Computing of Germany said on its website that it was attacked on the same day as well, and was prompted to take five of its clusters offline.