Posted on 11/20/2008 4:43:58 PM PST by Sammy67
Edited on 11/20/2008 4:48:23 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Thursday, November 20, 2008 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sounds like a Trojan Dragon.
Just wow! The news seems to be getting worse by the hour.
They'd be better off banning the use of Windows.
Tech, security pings
What the hell...
The “weak one” is not even in office yet and we are under attack, Hope for the best but you better be prepared for the worst especially with these bumbling fools who have taken over a once great nation!
China. They’ve been moving towards this capability for years.
I hope the fact that we never hear anything about American cyberwar capability comes from the fact that the military treats it as one of the most crucial weapons we have, rather than something that is beneath us as a nation.
Ummm... even my company already bans the use of external flash drives and DVD’s.
Well, now that our enemies have little to fear, most likely this will just be the start of a rash of attacks on America, cyber or otherwise....
China’s cyber army is preparing to march on America, says Pentagon
Just wait ‘till they buy GM and Chrysler...
This ban is on all govt owned computers, not jus those that handle classified data.
Agreed. I met the head of Information Assurance for the Air Force and he told me the following stark fact. Surprisingly, it was unclassified.
"To all of my fellow officers, in all other service branches and even the Air Force, our enemy is radical Islam. They fight the War on Terror."
"As for me, I stand alone. I have a single enemy. It is China. We have thousands of attempted network penetrations originating in China each day."
"We will win the War on Terror. But our real enemy is China."
Chilling thought. I hope we are sending back just what they are dishing out, in spades.
DOD bans the use of removable, flash-type drives on all government computers
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58951
And your company's sysadmin also know people are probably ignoring those requests, too. I read about a security audit where the auditors simply tossed a handful of usb thumb drives outside their customer's office. Each key had a trojan on it that didn't do any harm, but did let the auditors know it was used. By the end of the day they "heard" from many of those drives.
One thing I've though odd is that there isn't a larger market for thin client devices or workstation PCs built with better external-device-lockout capability. Most workstations are built with making life simple for the computer-ignorant, which also makes life simple for attackers, too.
That is a very profound statement, and true statement. DoD already has moved toward Apple servers. They should adopt Mac desktops and laptops also. Our troops deserve the best.
This happened a few days ago. It makes it really hard to get any work done. Fo shizzle.
I am still serving on active duty and I can attest to this as being true. Damn Russians or Chicoms are still up to no good! This has been a major pain in the ass and trying to get work done has really become difficult.
We have been under attack for months now! Economic terrorism is what I call it. Now cyber attack too. They had best get some excellent security folks down there fast! It’s amazing to me that if one wants to contact Microsoft, their security is like a maze, but cyber attacks can happen at the Pentagon?? Inexcusable! China hackers have done this enough times to our govt. computers, this should not still be able to happen.
The fact that they discovered it means that the meaningful data was stolen weeks ago. In January they can purchase their own passwords or hadn’t you noticed the number of Clintonistas in the administration of change.
Oh? I sure hope we're thinking about getting our troops back home if we're going to kill their capabilities so much!
Monday, I went to buy a pwrball ticket. Something went wrong with the computers not only at the store but the whole network. The store could only let me buy as high as $5 in cash or check, no credit cards or debit cards and nothing higher than $5. I immediately thought that a hacker did some damage but no one could tell me anything.
All you secrets are belong to us. /PRC
You set us up the bomb!
Chineese hardware w/backdoors... = the bomb.
Why are DOD assets connected to the commercial Internet anyway??? The DOD should have all sensitive computers off of the grid and the DOD should create its own grid off of the World Wide Web for its own internal use, with its own Operating Software. External drivers would be banned from the network, and there would be no outside access to the network, except for Federal departments that need to have it. That would put an end to most of these cyberattacks cold.
The Global Obama liberal worm?
ping
BTW, I also suspect a Chinese and/or Russian origin to these attacks, but Iran can’t be ruled out either.
It is hard for me, as a veteran, to believe that the "bumbling fools" are the ones in uniform. In my opinion, it is time for the military folks to reread their oath.
I feel for you.
Our warriors shouldn’t have to go out onto the modern battlefield with such restrictions. I can’t figure out a way to word this without sounding naïve, but I hope we can find some way around the restriction without too much vulnerability. We can’t stay pinned down by the threat.
In preparation for what one wonders...
I agree not good... small, random, tests occasionally to probe makes sense — a large-scale attack mkaes sense only as a prelude to something SOON... else, you are just teaching us your capabilities and allowing us time to fix things...
weird
I’m curious as to why?
ping
No, DoD should not move toward Macs. We used them in my area for a few years and got rid of them by the end of 2004. I can dispel the myth that Macs don’t crash, we used OSX and it was the biggest piece of crap ever. Performance was terrible and applications would freeze all over the place.
I don’t know where you’re getting the idea that DoD is moving toward Apple, that isn’t true at all. All new computers are loaded with Vista. They’d be better loading legacy Win XP, but you can’t buy it anymore.
Ping
From the article you posted...
"Sami Saydjari, who has been working on cyber defence systems for the Pentagon since the 1980s, told Congress in testimony on April 25 that a mass cyber attack could leave 70 per cent of the US without electrical power for six months." "He told The Times that all major nations – including China – were scrambling to defend against, and working out ways to cause, “maximum strategic damage” by taking out banking systems, power grids and communications networks. He said that there were at least a thousand attempted attacks every hour on American computers. “China is aggressive in this,” he said. "
THAT was funny. I run Parallels on my Mac, and I felt like I was loading a virus when I installed Windows....
Be careful Ma I think that’s what started the last one.....
bttt
The U.S. government should publicly acknowledge
that China is the top spy threat to the
United States and ban its microchips and associated hardware.
Naw, don't need to replace the hardware, just the OS. Windows is not a very good description for a secure defense agency.
I hear the NSA puts out a locked down version of Linux. And It would be free. We could save money by not having to license winders from redmond.
ping
It’s probably Skynet - cue music for “Terminator - The Sarah Palin Chronicles.”
You might as well laugh, nothing else seems to help.
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