THE persistent theft of components from one of Britain鈥檚 largest academic
supercomputers is taking a sinister turn. A scientist is warning that
thieves might be selling the computer鈥檚 brainpower to Iraq or al-Qaida for
clandestine weapons research.
鈥淭hese computers are perfect for weapons research,鈥� says Carlos Frenk,
director of Durham University鈥檚 Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC).
鈥淭here鈥檚 clearly something going on here that should be of great concern to
political authorities.鈥�
The computer in question is the ICC鈥檚 拢1.5 million Cosmology Machine,
which began work in July 2001. It was designed to simulate how the Universe
evolved as galaxies formed and clustered together, and could perform a mammoth
456 billion calculations every second.
Advertisement
On 18 December last year, thieves broke into the ICC and ruined four of the
computer鈥檚 12 hefty circuit boards while trying to prise them out with a
screwdriver. Initially, Frenk thought that the thieves were clueless
opportunists who hoped the boards might have resale value, not realising that
their botched attempt would make their haul useless anyway.
But when the thieves returned, suspicions grew that the boards were being
stolen to order for a particular client. On 22 December, they escaped with four
boards after being chased by a security guard. A third attempted burglary in
January this year failed
(快猫短视频, 12 January, p 13).
The ICC replaced some boards and upgraded security measures. But about eight
robbers broke in again on 3 February, this time bagging all the circuit boards,
including previously damaged ones that were awaiting repair. When challenged,
they threatened to shoot a security guard.
Frenk says the pattern gives cause for concern. The repeated break-ins
suggest the thieves are willing to risk long prison sentences and that they have
already been able to sell the boards on. No legitimate organisation would buy
such unique and identifiable stolen goods.
The thieves are also taking boards that they know to be damaged. So their
client must have enough electronics and engineering expertise to repair them and
construct the complex supporting frames needed to operate them. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 one
reason I started to think there鈥檚 something very sinister about this,鈥� says
Frenk.
He concludes that the hardware might be sold to terrorist organisations, or
states such as Iraq that covet nuclear technology, for weapons research.
Supercomputers are used to simulate the ignition and evolution of nuclear
reactions. 鈥淚f you want to simulate a nuclear explosion, this is exactly the
sort of computer you would use,鈥� Frenk says.
The world鈥檚 fastest computer, for example, carries out virtual testing to
allow the US to maintain its weapons stockpile. Known as the ASCI White, it
covers an area the size of two basketball courts and performs 12 trillion
calculations per second at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California.
Computers like the ICC鈥檚 are also used for air-traffic control and code
breaking. Another possible use is predicting the outcome of bioterrorist
attacks, by simulating the spread of infection throughout a population.
鈥淭oday you cannot have a vigorous weapons programme鈥攂iological, nuclear
or chemical鈥攚ithout lots of computing power,鈥� says Frenk. He adds that
computer thieves probably view universities as a soft target because they don鈥檛
have the fortress-like security of military labs.
But Daryl Landeg of Britain鈥檚 Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston
says weapons developers probably wouldn鈥檛 go to all this trouble. 鈥淭here are
easier things they can do,鈥� he says. Although some of the most complex studies
of weapons design require specialised machines, much of the work could be done
with off-the-shelf computers. 鈥淵ou can buy a bunch of PCs, link them together
with decent networking, then use open-source software to run them as a parallel
computer,鈥� says Landeg.
But Frenk says that even if there鈥檚 a small chance his hunch is correct,
there is cause for concern. 鈥淏ut as far as I can tell, this is being treated as
a sort of low-level crime.鈥�
Durham police say they鈥檙e keeping an open mind. They are working on the case
with London鈥檚 Metropolitan Police and don鈥檛 want to discuss their lines of
enquiry. 鈥淥ur main concern is to try and identify who鈥檚 organising it,鈥� a
spokesman said. 鈥淚f there was further concern about using these computers for
weapons control or something, that would be an issue for another agency, such as
the Foreign Office.鈥�