by Frank James
Defense officials have been concerned for years about the threat to U.S. government computer networks posed by cyberattacks from American adversaries whether they're governments, criminal networks or hackers, with particular concern about China and Russia.
It turns out there was another one this past week, apparently of Russian origins, which was of such consequence that President Bush was informed.
As Julian Barnes of the Tribune's Washington Bureau reports:
Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia -- an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security.
Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The attack also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network.
Military computers are regularly beset by outside hackers, computer viruses and worms. But defense officials said the most recent attack involved an intrusive piece of malicious software, or "malware," apparently designed specifically to target military networks.
"This one was significant; this one got our attention," said one defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing internal assessments.
What makes such an attack so difficult, aside from the damage they can do to computer network systems, is that they defy computer experts' ability trace, and that was the case in this instance, Barnes writes.
Military electronics experts have not pinpointed the source or motive of the attack and could not say whether the destructive program was created by an individual hacker or whether the Russian government may have had some involvement. Defense experts may never be able to answer such questions, officials said.
So much of the U.S. military's current capability and its command and control is based on the use of sophisticated computer networks that obviously there's an urgency to figuring out how to counter these attacks.
Obviously, if even highly classified military networks can be hacked, then no network is invulnerable, especially those used by the private sector for financial transactions. Just one more worry to keep us up at night.
Comments
Yes, I had an employee once that had a degree in computer sciences. He did many online transactions until one day when he noticed his computer had a quick flick of the screen on the computer start up. That led him to spend about 6 hours trolling through his hard drive on his computer…..he finally found a completely stealthed data mining key-logger. When he opened it up, he saw all of his passwords, bank accounts, SS#, and such that he had entered in his computer that week ready to be exported in a file at the end of the week! So, if it took a computer programmer 6 hours to find something like that, than I say that anyone that is doing excessive transactions online and online banking is behind the times!!! I do a lot of shopping on line, but I call their 800 number and order it that way, or else do a paypal transaction, but anything else I will not do.
Posted by: Xcellentform | November 28, 2008 10:21 AM
Anybody who is not worried about the resurgent Russian Empire hasn't been paying attention for the last several years. And the clowns here who were so confident that once Bush is out and Barack is in then Russia and the rest of the world will love us again are in for a rude awakening.
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Be Afraid... Be very afraid.
Posted by: MJ | November 28, 2008 8:54 PM
Pings are being sent our way.
This love tap from Russia.
Mumbai, a dress rehearsal for ....?
Chicago has been blessed----so far.
Posted by: ornery | November 28, 2008 9:49 PM