From Newsgroup: alt.security
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14483875/north-sea-oil-tanker-crash-speculation-foul-play.html
A White House official yesterday refused to rule out the
possibility of foul play in the North Sea tanker crash,
with speculation one of the ships may have been hacked.
A Portuguese-flagged cargo ship carrying cyanide smashed
into a US military oil tanker causing a 'massive fireball'
off the Yorkshire coast.
Jet fuel gushed into the North Sea from the ruptured hold
of the US-flagged oil tanker MV Stena Immaculate, which was
transporting American military supplies. It had been at
anchor when Portuguese-registered cargo ship MV Solong
crashed into it.
A senior White House official told the maritime website
gCaptain.com that foul play had not been ruled out. There
was speculation that the Solong might have been hacked by
Russia or other hostile states and turned into a 'spear'.
A total of 36 mariners were rescued after abandoning ships
as explosions rocked their doomed vessels.
. . .
May seem an exotic theory - but these days all large
ships use computerized/GPS auto-nav systems and they
CAN be hacked or spoofed. Russia has been screwing
up GPS signals along the Polish border for a couple
of years now - an especial threat to aircraft.
So, while no proof yet, this IS a possibility and
would be in tune with Russian-backed attacks on
power/data lines in the Norway/Sweden/Finland
area. It seems to be Russia's aim to degrade and
kinda isolate the BALTICS from the rest of Europe.
Vlad HAS said he really hates Estonia especially
and wants all the Baltics back in the Russian
sphere. An approaching end to the Ukraine distraction
and diminished US involvement in NATO is making the
Baltic countries VERY nervous. Vlad's admitted
"mission from God" is to reconstitute the old USSR
borders.
GPS signals especially, are VERY weak and it has not
been difficult for govts, even 'pirates', to get
near enough to over-ride real with fake signals.
Crews just tend to believe the GPS nav unit.
The US fuel tanker was ANCHORED - the cargo ship
swerved and crashed into it. Security on a mil-
supply tanker may be fair, but NOT necessarily
on some random cargo ship. If there's a second
such incident soon, then we'll know.
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