International Meteor Organization Hit by Cyberattack, Website Faces Weeks of Downtime

The International Meteor Organization (IMO), a nonprofit group that coordinates and publishes amateur and professional observations of meteor phenomena, says a cyberattack has severely damaged its aging infrastructure and taken much of its website offline.

“We recently suffered a cyberattack that severely damaged our aging infrastructure and took a large portion of our site offline,” the IMO website said Wednesday. “We anticipate several weeks of partial downtime as we transition to new infrastructure and services.”

IMO prioritizes bolide observation reports

Despite the disruption, the organization said it is prioritizing reports of reportable bolide observations through its fireball reporting portal. The IMO is also sharing information through its Facebook page.

“I’m very sad to see the site down,” the organization said.

The IMO has helped develop uniform standards for reporting meteor observations. Its database of meteor and fireball reports—including text, photos, and videos—is considered essential by many researchers and observers in the field. The organization also publishes the bimonthly WGN Journal, short for Working Group News. The IMO was officially established in 1988.

Why was the meteor organization targeted?

It remains unclear why an organization that tracks meteors and other objects entering Earth’s atmosphere would be targeted in a damaging cyberattack. It is also unclear whether the attackers intended to steal data, much of which is publicly available, or had another motive.