Today's Blog posting is an admixture of several subjects, but they all have a relevance to our beloved hobby.
The ARRL was Cyberattacked and essentially put the Logbook of the World out of business. I also believe the attack impacted their email systems where lots of hams use the ARRL for communications outside of on the air contacts. I heard about this on the air yesterday and sit here astounded, amused and amazed.
This event conjures all sorts of questions like why did it happen? Was it to spite the shift by ARRL to digital delivery of QST? If the ARRL systems were attacked that could impact the digital delivery system. Was it for financial gain i.e. held for ransom? Is there more than meets the eye beyond denial of service in that personal data like your credit card info was stolen? Was the ARRL caught with their antenna exposed?
One must also ask what security ARRL had for their Computer System(s). Was it regularly tested for any potential breaches? As advanced technically that ARRL would have you believe they are -- someone built a better mousetrap.
That leads us to who would do this. I don't know how you would go about pulling off a Cyberattack but it likely was someone more than some unhappy ham living in a basement in the 4, 5, 7, 8 or 9 call areas. Was it from a hacking group in Russia or China.
Will the Science and Technology Committee in the House of Representatives call for an immediate investigation? Two heavyweights on that Committee are Darrell Issa and Ryan Zinke names well known for pushing such investigations. MTG is not on that committee so it might take a while to see an ad hoc sound bite about it being linked to Joe Biden.
Astounded that our hobby to got hit. Amused that the ARRL response will likely be tepid at best and definitely pale by comparison to a response should NASCAR get attacked. Amazed that it took this long to happen.
One must ask was this all a conspiracy timed to occur during the same time as the Dayton Hamvention and FDIM. That precise timing is more than just a coincidence!
A Follow Up on my tale of woe. Short story: not much of a connection to the braid.
Yesterday's post discussed the bad solder job on a coax connector. It was worse than I imagined. I was able to pull out the shield sheath without any desoldering.
A 6-foot built RG-8 cable assembly complete with PL-259's is about $44 from DX Engineering. This is a huge incentive to repair the old one.
Finally, a bit of the homily from yesterday's mass. Thank God for You Tube as my local Catholic church live streams mass on Sunday morning. I manage a twofer -- time with the XYL at the Board and Care and attending mass.
Our priest talked about gifts we receive in the form of skills and capabilities. He shared that he was quite good at baseball and got close to signing with a semi-pro ball club. But he also confessed that at one parish he was encouraged to not sing along with the choir. Baseball gene's Yes, but singing gene's No.
This was a good example for us all. Not everyone can design, and scratch build a SSB Transceiver and some of us do a really crappy job of soldering coax connectors!
73's
Pete N6QW