The Global Meteor Network (GMN), an international project that uses a network of cameras to track meteor trajectories and calculate their orbits, has been forced to shut down its public-facing operations. The organization reported that it suffered a "critical blow" from a cyberattack, which has compromised its ability to process and share data regarding meteor sightings.

According to the organization, the attack was sophisticated enough to necessitate a complete suspension of their services. The GMN team has indicated that they expect to be out of commission for at least several weeks as they perform a security audit and restore their infrastructure from backups. The nonprofit relies on a distributed network of amateur and professional observers to monitor the night sky, and the outage prevents these contributors from uploading or accessing data through the central platform.

While the organization has confirmed the nature of the incident as a cyberattack, they have not yet disclosed the specific identity of the attackers or the exact method used to breach their systems. The incident highlights the vulnerability of scientific research organizations that rely on interconnected digital networks to aggregate data from global contributors. As of now, the GMN is focusing its efforts on system recovery and securing its network against future intrusions. No further details regarding potential data theft or ransom demands have been made public at this time.