Posted on 04/21/2009 5:15:56 AM PDT by Pistolshot
WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air-traffic-control system in recent months, these people say. In the case of the fighter-jet program, the intruders were able to copy and siphon off several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems, officials say, potentially making it easier to defend against the craft.
The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together. The revelations follow a recent Wall Street Journal report that computers used to control the U.S. electrical-distribution system, as well as other infrastructure, have also been infiltrated by spies abroad.
Attacks like these — or U.S. awareness of them — appear to have escalated in the past six months, said one former official briefed on the matter. "There's never been anything like it," this person said, adding that other military and civilian agencies as well as private companies are affected. "It's everything that keeps this country going."
Many details couldn't be learned, including the specific identity of the attackers, and the scope of the damage to the U.S. defense program, either in financial or security terms. In addition, while the spies were able to download sizable amounts of data related to the jet-fighter, they weren't able to access the most sensitive material, which is stored on computers not connected to the Internet.
Former U.S. officials say the attacks appear to have originated in China. However it can be extremely difficult to determine the true origin because it is easy to mask identities online.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There has been a couple of cyber-wars already.
Hiring democrats is a security risk..
Obama’s Fault.
My thoughts exactly. ALL military and related info should be totally within it’s own network not accessible from outside.............This is incompetence...........
My thoughts exactly. I used to work for a mainframe manufacturer, and one of our customers was the CIA. Their sensitive systems were on high security, private networks with NO connection to the outside world. I think sometimes systems are connected to the internet because they can be rather than because it makes sense.
It’s sure nice to know we are going ahead with building the compromised JSF, rather than the Raptor....
hh
And why not highly encrypted? This is sheer negligence on many levels. Heads should roll...
hh
We need a group of MIT teenagers to get together and hack into the Chinese military computers, and wipe them out. But not before making them launch missiles at themselves.
I keep wondering the same thing. Why? We somehow managed to go decades, centuries even, without putting all of our secrets on an insecure network. Why do we suddenly need to put everything online?
My cynical self sees all these stories as something to be used against everyday users of the internet.
BEWARE
Okay something is fishy here. Several terabytes of bandwidth doesn't just happen unnoticed. Either this occurred over many months in which time routine checks and sweeps would have found the data leak or this was a massive burst in a short period of time which would have set off a host of alarms.
The DOD systems have high speed connections but still this is kind of like relocating an elephant using a bicycle. This screams inside job.
It’s very very easy to stop this.
Don’t connect your internal network to the Internet. Not wireless, nor VPN. Onsite, physical access should be required for accessing ANY top-secret project.
It amazes me the security ineptitude prevalant in today’s network administrators.
I guess the old adage, ‘FAST - SECURE - CHEAP, pick two’ is at play.
The NSA is looking actively for hackers to hire.
Just following the example set by the Clintons.
BTTT
Just received in an email;
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/21/pentagon.hacked/index.html
I know the situation. I worked on the Apache Longbow program at Martin-Marietta (now Lockheed-Martin), and the Secure (Top Secret) network was completely isolated from the regular network, and compartmentalized beyond that, depending on the program you were working on. Only a couple rooms where you could go to transfer files from one network to another, and believe me, you had to have clearance. Not to mention inspections, and could bring nothing in with you except a disk. Other data security measures in place, obviously, but not from my lips.
They took security very seriously. Just the gates you had to walk through (heavy-duty turnstiles with intermeshing spokes to the ceiling) were intimidating. Good to trap and keep folks who would be dumb enough to attempt a breach. Had to swipe card to even get into the turnstiles. Halfway through, if they wanted you, it would stop, and you were caged.
I have no doubt whatsoever that there are many, many talented Americans (and Danes, and Poles, and Many from other countries) that could wipe out any network anywhere in the world, if they put their minds, keyboards, and cheetos to it-lol. My guess also is that the appropriate government agencies have some of them available.
The few truly brilliant folks that got roped into working with the government have to be tearing their hair out. My guess is that they are presently very frustrated, due to the idiocity of the government, and their chain of command, and their ignorance, and their "diplomacy," and their bureaucratic inertia. No matter how brilliant and far-seeing someone may be, there is a postal office worker-type ready to quash any good idea.
IT guy: "I have isolated the data theft of the F-35 fighter program to General Chi's son-in-law. He is at 3545 Beijing square. Shall I send him a virus that will wipe out everything he has, hack into his sources and destinations, reroute his email to a porn list, and give his village his digital picture of he and his boytoy doing the nasty?"
"No, this is a diplomatic issue. Leave it alone. No shrimp cocktails for you."
I'm sure I'm already on Obama's list, so what the heck. I guess if I had the talents that guys like you do, with the underground resources that hopelessly confuse the postal worker IQ NSA bureau chief, I'd dream about getting together a group of clandestine, brilliant, world-wide folks that know how to cover their tracks, and take out as much of China (and Russia, for that matter) as I could, IT-wise, in the name of FREEDOM. Not that I am advocating actually doing that (hear that, Lon Horiuchi?).
But if such a group formed, and decided to just do something about this blatent communist espionage, I picture incredible bragging rights, adulation from folks world wide, free Danish citizenship, and guys like me and other patriots sending cash rewards just because we can. Just a dream, I know, but so far, dreaming is not illegal.
Because real-time collaboration between Prime Contractor, Subcontractors, and Prime Customer on design and requirements is the way programs are run these days. With major subcontractors in several states and countries, and with the prime contractor's facilities located in at least three different states, the only way to engage in the real-time collaboration to do the design work efficiently is to use online collaboration. The online collaborative systems that are connected to the internet are encrypted and use two-factor authentication to log in; however, the processing of any Classified data (secret, top-secret, or higher) is NOT allowed on these systems. None of the data compromised were classified, though it was certainly sensitive data that still must be protected.
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