Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

signalandsilence.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 253 posts

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#231

Post by ericmay »

ethbr1 wrote: post #172
nwallin wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aircraft carriers are not particularly well suited to be supplied by cargo aircraft. The largest cargo aircraft with the strengthened landing gear, arresting hook, and catapult attachment used to be the C-2 Greyhound. It had a range of approximately 1,500 miles with a 10,000 pound cargo. It was retired on July 28th, 2026. The C-2 has been replaced by the CMV-22B Osprey. It has a range of only 1,150 miles and a more l…

The relevant phrase is underway replenishment (aka UNREP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underway_replenishment It's been the basis for at-sea supply of long-endurance ships since ~1910 when refueling oil became a key blue sea naval requirement. Modern example: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kzncvGBj-88 Mostly tensioned cables carrying hoses (liquids especially fuel being the highest volume / limiting factor), some pall…

Spot-on and thanks for sharing that video too. Aircraft carriers aren't really designed to be replenished by large aircraft which would instead be used to replenish sites like Guam with large enough runways and, frankly, the need if something went wrong due to the population size, remoteness, and inability of everyday residents to do anything about the situation.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#232

Post by ethbr1 »

Tangurena2 wrote: post #220
ethbr1 wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The relevant phrase is underway replenishment (aka UNREP) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underway_replenishment It's been the basis for at-sea supply of long-endurance ships since ~1910 when refueling oil became a key blue sea naval requirement. Modern example: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/kzncvGBj-88 Mostly tensioned cables carrying hoses (liquids especially fuel being the highest volume / limiting factor), some pall…

I've watched some videos showing UNREP and they're fascinating. It takes a lot of skill to keep the ships parallel. There was a collision earlier this year between the resupply ship and the recipient. Analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSYl9y3e944 Also, the Navy is using Ospreys to resupply submarines at sea because they have the range and helicopters don't.

> Also, the Navy is using Ospreys to resupply submarines at sea because they have the range and helicopters don't.

Afaik, modern submarines handle terribly on the surface, so I imagine direct ship-to-ship UNREP is rare. Also, too much cost risk from a collision.

Per YouTube, it's mostly vertical replenishment. Helicopter for short range. Osprey for longer. Floating pallets pushed out of the back of a C-17 at max range.

I'm sure the packing is intricate for something that's going to be air dropped, then floating, then has to be broken down on an unstable floating platform and conveyed inside through small ports!

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#233

Post by ceejayoz »

ericmay wrote: post #230
wbl wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Vietnam war the US didn't win because it couldn't, no matter how much force was employed. Here same thing: we can't depose the Iranian government without a land invasion (which is too costly) and nothing else keeps them from having control of the strait.

It's not really the same thing. I really do not at all understand why folks see any sort of military intervention that isn't over in 5 minutes as "the next Vietnam". Venezuela was going to be the next Vietnam too. It's like "the next 2008" all over again espoused as a traumatic, quasi-religious point of view. Rather interesting from a cultural evolution standpoint - seems to be that some folks can't shake a trauma so…

> An economic blockade could do that, or at worst simply deprive the Iranian government of the means to financially carry out war.

This sounds like the sort of "quasi-religious point of view" you're slamming, considering it's been tried repeatedly already without great success.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#234

Post by edoceo »

lenerdenator wrote: post #228
edoceo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bunch of assumptions about operational excellence in there. Doesn't match my experience but, it does match my desire.

You have to be the change you want to see in the world. We often forget this, but computer software and hardware are engineering disciplines. Part of engineering is knowing when something's bad and telling the person who asked you to do that something that you won't do it. In the civil engineering world, this means you might have to just walk away from the project and blow a whistle before people get hurt or killed.…

Great advice for a much younger person.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#235

Post by NetMageSCW »

ericmay wrote: post #230
wbl wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Vietnam war the US didn't win because it couldn't, no matter how much force was employed. Here same thing: we can't depose the Iranian government without a land invasion (which is too costly) and nothing else keeps them from having control of the strait.

It's not really the same thing. I really do not at all understand why folks see any sort of military intervention that isn't over in 5 minutes as "the next Vietnam". Venezuela was going to be the next Vietnam too. It's like "the next 2008" all over again espoused as a traumatic, quasi-religious point of view. Rather interesting from a cultural evolution standpoint - seems to be that some folks can't shake a trauma so…

How’s that working against Russia?

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#236

Post by NetMageSCW »

pests wrote: post #206
wood_spirit wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or criminals (perhaps ransom not paid etc) or Kiddies for the lolz or US teen lashing out or any of the gazillion nationalist-aligned hackers who don’t like USA. But a misconfiguration is even more likely. Can’t think _why_ freezers need to be web connected and remotely managed in the first place. What benefits does that bring the commissary in normal operation?

To try to guess at a plausible answer, any monitoring / remote management stemmed from wanting to keep an eye on temps over time. Freezers can go out of temp for only so long before its all bad. Tada. It saves someone from making the rounds with a clipboard and writing down temps every X hours. I agree its unneeded, just I can see the thought process.

Remote monitoring doesn’t imply remote management- one is sensible, one is a power trip. We are required to monitor our refrigeration and we did it with a distributed system of wireless sensor that upload to a cloud service. It’s independent and there’s no risk of loss from it.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#237

Post by lenerdenator »

edoceo wrote: post #234
lenerdenator wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be the change you want to see in the world. We often forget this, but computer software and hardware are engineering disciplines. Part of engineering is knowing when something's bad and telling the person who asked you to do that something that you won't do it. In the civil engineering world, this means you might have to just walk away from the project and blow a whistle before people get hurt or killed.…

Great advice for a much younger person.

Or anyone.

It doesn't have to wait 20 years for someone to come through engineering school to happen.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#238

Post by NetMageSCW »

wormius wrote: post #112

Probably not, but my closest bet would fall to Hanlon's razor: I was curious if this was continued evidence of poor appropriations and upkeep or what... I do see "U.S. military commissary refrigeration maintenance, equipment replacement, and physical infrastructure are funded through the 5% commissary surcharge paid by customers at checkout rather than direct congressional appropriations." So, perhaps the first place…

What are the odds that lack of maintenance would cause 6% of bases to fail and all units at each base to fail in the same way - by switching to defrost at 2am?

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#239

Post by NetMageSCW »

homeonthemtn wrote: post #84
Hovertruck wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weirdly I felt like it got more LLM-y the further I got in. Then I hit the part with: But the thing I can’t get past is Fort Huachuca’s failure mode. Not: the freezer compressor died. Not: the power went out. Not even: the refrigeration system stopped cooling. Every freezer went into active defrost.

Yep! Same point for me too. Just a little too Claude-y

The problem isn’t AI slop, it’s you seeing AI slop under every bush.

Re: I think the military commissary's freezers were hacked

#240

Post by NetMageSCW »

DarmokTanagra wrote: post #22
boesboes wrote: post #5

Welcome to the internet of shitty unsupported and insecure crap! Are we really this dumb as a society?

How many people do you know that have always on microphones in their home so that they buy things from amazon or google trivia answers?

There’s (as always) an XKCD for that:

https://xkcd.com/1807/

Post reply on HN