Posted on 11/09/2015 11:01:08 AM PST by Enlightened1
The Pentagon was tipped off in 2011 by a longtime Army contractor that Russian computer programmers were helping to write computer software for sensitive U.S. military communications systems, setting in motion a four-year federal investigation that ended this week with a multimillion-dollar fine against two firms involved in the work.
The contractor, John C. Kingsley, said in court documents filed in the case that he discovered the Russians’ role after he was appointed to run one of the firms in 2010. He said the software they wrote had made it possible for the Pentagon’s communications systems to be infected with viruses.
Greed drove the contractor to employ the Russian programmers, he said in his March 2011 complaint, which was sealed until late last week. He said they worked for one-third the rate that American programmers with the requisite security clearances could command. His accusations were denied by the firms that did the programming work.
“On at least one occasion, numerous viruses were loaded onto the DISA [Defense Information Systems Agency] network as a result of code written by the Russian programmers and installed on servers in the DISA secure system,†Kingsley said in his complaint, filed under the federal False Claims Act in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2011.
Asked to confirm that the Russians’ involvement in the software work led to the presence of viruses in the U.S. military’s communications systems, Alana Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Defense Information Systems Agency, declined to answer on the grounds that doing so could compromise the agency’s “national security posture.â€
“It’s something that we take very seriously,†Johnson said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “The Department of Defense’s posture on cybersecurity ultimately affects national security.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
What could possibly go wrong here?
Hillary’s Reset ,works for the Russians
And we wonder why Vlad laughs at us.
This may explain our FR plague of random characters in our posts....
I wish I could be surprised by this. I know the story says it was a financial thing, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the lack of a good workforce factored in to the decision.
Lenin
4 years investigation? Another bureaucratic mumbo jumbo fake investigation.
Fine? Like that couple of mill is going to make all that software safe? There should have been serious jail time and exploration of treasonous activity.
Wonder if the contractor is a Dem stalwart.
Not quite Lenin, the capitalists will pay to set up a factory in Russia to make rope, provide the hemp fiber, buy the finished rope in bulk, cut it into retail packages of noose length, and sell it back at a net loss to you, with the hope of making up the difference in volume...
I’m guessing that CSC did not know that NetCrackers were using a third tier sub. Of course, they did not know that a foreign company was involved as the ITAR procedures would not have been done. When committing a crime, you generally don’t file detailed information with the State Department. Now that the Federal Government is done with them, I’m sure that CSC will go after NetCrackers. Since NetCracker is a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC, they will get dragged into this as well. Lots of money just got thrown into the pot and the lawyers will be very busy sorting all of this out.
The Wikipedia page states that NetCracker has 10 development centers in Russia. You would have thought that someone have asked these bubbas to certify that they weren’t using foreign centers to develop the DISA work.
ping
Is this any worse than letting the Chinese maintain out security clearance database? Our gubmint in action.
that’s total bs.
there’s no lack of developers in the US ... just a lack of developers willing to do it for $20k/yr
I would think that allowing people without security clearances access to classified systems would result in jail time, rather than fines.
This is pretty misleading. Many of these contractors are US companies that have employees who are Russians here on work visas, are naturalized citizens, or have Russian ancestry. I know several people in the Silicon Valley area who contract work or consult with mathematicians who are Russian. They are great mathematicians and find problems designers and programmers here miss. Almost all of them have horrible people skills and can only make a living pushing numbers.
Much of this is the result of Russia and the former Soviet Union pushing math and science in their education system instead of having them read books about children with multiple parents of the same sex.
I am certain there are no defense contractors that are outright Russian companies with US defense contracts or Russian companies that are subcontractors. The people in question are Russian citizens on work visas or naturalized citizens. Are these people spies? Saboteurs? Possible. But the wording of the article makes it sounds like the work is being done in Russia; that is likely not the case.
We might as well run a headline reading US Outsources Space Program to Nazis which would of course be technically true.
It makes sense when you realize that the Soviets obtained the source code from the Clintons for a hundred-dollar campaign contribution...
That’s okay - he didn’t dare thrust the Russians with anything critical like the Obamacare systems. :)
E.g., Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin.
Stupidity falls to a new low.
Military intelligence?
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