‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Large Hadron Collider promises to bring scientists a much needed look into the… ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The Large Hadron Collider promises to bring scientists a much needed look into the early, high-energy life of the universe. Directly after the Big Bang, the energy of the early universe was so high that the fundamental forces of nature were unified, and high-intensity particles wildly collided. ‘ ‘ ‘ Not until later in the universe’s early life did the ambient temperature reduce enough for the modern subatomic ‘mdash; and later, the modern atomic ‘mdash; structures to form. ‘ ‘ ‘ Understanding the period before the separation of forces and before the creation of stable subatomic particles is essential for scientists to understand the evolution of the current fundamental forces, and in turn, the very nature of matter, energy and structure in the universe. ‘ ‘ ‘ Unfortunately, up until quite recently the energies required to recreate this time period were far beyond scientists’ reach. Although scientists have been able to create many of the subatomic particles thought to be major players in the universe’s early development, energy limitations have relegated perhaps the most important particle, the Higgs’ boson, to the pages of a mathematician’s notebook. The Higgs’ boson is thought to be the fundamental source for the elusive definition of mass in the universe. ‘ ‘ ‘ The good news is that the LHC was successfully completed and turned on. As an added bonus, despite what some crackpots on the Internet seemed to predict, the high-energy proton beams of the LHC did not set in motion the annihilation of the entire universe at the hands of excess quantities of anti-matter. ‘ ‘ ‘ The data from the LHC has begun pouring into the CERN-based high-throughput computing system, ready for organization and ultimate interpretation. And with all of this making headline news, one would think that the CERN people would be extra careful to secure their computer system. ‘ ‘ ‘ The BBC recently reported, however, that even though the CERN computer administrators took precautions, hackers were able to compromise the LHC’s computer system successfully and gain access to an unspecified amount of data. According to the BBC’s article, although officials at the LHC do not believe any important data was compromised, the Web site did display some hacker propaganda. ‘ ‘ ‘ The Web site is now unavailable, pending corrections and installations of further security measures. If no data was compromised, the problem is essentially solved with the addition of security patches. Unfortunately, because so much data is being transferred and interpreted, small changes in computer data may be difficult to detect. ‘ ‘ ‘ The LHC officials got lucky, in a way, as the BBC reported that the hacked computer system was not used to control or edit the properties of the LHC device or experiment itself. The hacked computer was merely an output device used to monitor the progression of the LHC ‘big-bang’ experiment. ‘ ‘ ‘ Think about the implications of a major hack. If a major control or data-storage machine is compromised at the LHC, the data edited may be impossible to detect. Small deviations in the data could cause interpretation efforts to fail or could lead to false conclusions. The LHC, although large and hulking, is an extremely fine-tuned machine. Hacks in control machines could cause physical damage to the device itself, delaying or even canceling future experiments. ‘ ‘ ‘ What is CERN doing about this problem? Everything it can. Unfortunately, as the BBC reported, the experiments at the LHC require the input of hundreds, even thousands of people. Securing a network that large is a daunting task and may even prove to be impossible to complete to full satisfaction. ‘ ‘ ‘ Luckily for us, despite what the Internet says, the LHC can in no way kill us all. Even if a hacker manages to overload it, the result may be only to reach unprecedented energy levels, which would, in turn, lead to unprecedented insights into the early universe. ‘ ‘ ‘ The LHC Web site at the CERN facility is www.cmsmon.cern.ch. It may come back online once CERN officials are satisfied that they have fixed or patched the security holes allowing for the recent attack.