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November 21, 2008
Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack
Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack
The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.
The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.
"We have detected a global virus for which there has been alerts, and we have seen some of this on our networks," a Pentagon official told FOX News. "We are now taking steps to mitigate the virus."
The official could not reveal the source of the attack because that information remains classified.
"Daily there are millions of scans of the GIG, but for security reasons we don't discuss the number of actual intrusions or attempts, or discuss specific measures commanders in the field may be taking to protect and defend our networks," the department said in an official statement.
Military computers are often referred to as part of the Global Information Grid, or GIG, a system composed of 17 million computers, many of which house classified or sensitive information.
FOX News obtained a copy of one memo sent out last week to an Army division within the Pentagon warning of the cyber attack.
"Due to the presence of commercial malware, CDR USSTRATCOM has banned the use of removable media (thumb drives, CDRs/DVDRs, floppy disks) on all DoD networks and computers effective immediately."
And there was this September, 2007
China’s cyber army is preparing to march on America, says Pentagon
Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable America’s aircraft battle carrier fleet with a devastating cyber attack, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Times.
The blueprint for such an assault, drawn up by two hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea.
China’s ambitions extend to crippling an enemy’s financial, military and communications capabilities early in a conflict, according to military documents and generals’ speeches that are being analysed by US intelligence officials. Describing what is in effect a new arms race, a Pentagon assessment states that China’s military regards offensive computer operations as “critical to seize the initiative” in the first stage of a war.
The plan to cripple the US aircraft carrier battle groups was authored by two PLA air force officials, Sun Yiming and Yang Liping. It also emerged this week that the Chinese military hacked into the US Defence Secretary’s computer system in June; have regularly penetrated computers in at least 10 Whitehall departments, including military files, and infiltrated German government systems this year.
Cyber attacks by China have become so frequent and aggressive that President Bush, without referring directly to Beijing, said this week that “a lot of our systems are vulnerable to attack”. He indicated that he would raise the subject with Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, when they met in Sydney at the Apec summit. Mr Hu denied that China was responsible for the attack on Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary.
Larry M. Wortzel, the author of the US Army War College report, said: “The thing that should give us pause is that in many Chinese military manuals they identify the US as the country they are most likely to go to war with. They are moving very rapidly to master this new form of warfare.” The two PLA hackers produced a “virtual guidebook for electronic warfare and jamming” after studying dozens of US and Nato manuals on military tactics, according to the document.
The Pentagon logged more than 79,000 attempted intrusions in 2005. About 1,300 were successful, including the penetration of computers linked to the Army’s 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the 4th Infantry Division. In August and September of that year Chinese hackers penetrated US State Department computers in several parts of the world. Hundreds of computers had to be replaced or taken offline for months. Chinese hackers also disrupted the US Naval War College’s network in November, forcing the college to shut down its computer systems for several weeks. The Pentagon uses more than 5 million computers on 100,000 networks in 65 countries.
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Wild Thing's comment........
I am not an expert with computers, but this kind of thing happening is not good!!! It could be the Chinese, Russians, or Iranians, or a combination of 2 or 3 of them.
Maybe Obama can sit down and talk to these guys. I'm sure when he explains how troublesome it is, they'll mend their errant ways. ( sure that should do it)
While I was working on this post I just saw this:
US panel warns of Chinese espionage
Washington - AP...for complete article
China has accelerated computer espionage attacks on the U.S. government, defense contractors and American businesses, a congressional advisory panel said Thursday.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to lawmakers that aggressive Chinese space programs are allowing Beijing to more effectively target U.S. military forces.
"China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from U.S. computer networks," said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000 to advise, investigate and report on U.S.-China issues.
Posted by Wild Thing at November 21, 2008 04:40 AM
Comments
We are indebted to the Chicoms big time! They are backing us and our US currency now! Go figure?
- Wal*Mart 2008
- Emperor Con Fused Us 2009
Posted by: darthcrUSAderworldtour07 at November 21, 2008 06:58 AM
If our government would stop it's spending spree we would not be indebted to China. Drilling for our own oil would sure as hell put a dent in our debt and strengthen the dollar. Bailing out banks and businesses with massive amounts of taxpayer money puts us further in debt.
China is certainly a potential military foe of America. They have been planning cyberwarfare for years. I hope we have good counter plans.
One hope we have is that China will have a revolution as capitalism becomes more prevalant in that country. Maybe the new capitalist generation will decide to throw out the Communist rulers. China also has another potential revolution fomenting as the peasant class feels left out of the influence of the capitalist boom. In a decade or so, China may just turn itsself inside out.
Posted by: TomR at November 21, 2008 11:55 AM
Darth, waaaa yes I hate this, I hate borrowing from communists. sheesh!!!!!
Posted by: Wild Thing at November 21, 2008 06:32 PM
Tom, I agree sooooo much.
If we would just start drilling for oil. Iti would solve a lot of problems. People would not be holding their breath to see if the gas will go up again, more jobs, more travel, more people buying new cars, more all kinds of things.
I agree too with what you said about the hope is out there that there will be a revolution as capitalism will grow in strength in China.
Posted by: Wild Thing at November 21, 2008 06:35 PM
