A group of hackers identifying themselves as the 2600 succeeded in hacking into a computer network of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. CERN scientists said the network is used to analyze data from the new accelerator’s Compact Muon Detector.

The Large Hadron Collider, (LHC) began operation in early September, but will not begin smashing particles until late in the year. The particle collisions will recreate conditions the universe has not seen since a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The hacker team 2600 also identified themselves as the “Greek Security Team” and was competing against a rival hacker group to successfully tap the computer system of history’s largest physics experiment.

2600 is a common hacking number, based off an historical oddity of the telephone industry. When sound of frequency 2600 hertz was transmitted over a telephone line, the user was granted operator privileges in long distance phone networks. The frequency was the same as that produced by a small whistle given away in Cap’n Crunch Cereal, further easing the phone-tapping process.