In a strange twist to the start up of the Large Hadron Collider, it appears that the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), one of the collider’s two all purpose detectors, has come under attack from purportedly Greek hackers.

The hacking attack apparently took place September 9 and 10 in the lead-up to the official LHC switch-on. According to The Telegraph, the perpetrators identified themselves as the GST (short for Greek Security Team). The “team” says that it is 2600 strong, slightly larger than the CMS collaboration, but it doesn’t appear to be related to the end-of-the-world paranoia surrounding the LHC’s startup on 10 September.

The GST apparently got through to the metasystem that monitors CMS software as it takes data. That system was separated from the detector’s main controls by a firewall, and physicists quickly cut off the attack. “No harm was done,” CMS spokesperson Jim Virdee told me.

Image: CMS