Inside the Secret War Against Internet Spies

ahess247 brings us a lengthy BusinessWeek story on the increasing amount of attacks against the US government's online presence as well as its contacts in the private sector. Hackers are gaining a greater awareness of where valuable data might reside, and that awareness is leading to more precise, more sophisticated attacks. Quoting: "The U.S. government, and its sprawl of defense contractors, have been the victims of an unprecedented rash of similar cyber attacks over the last two years, say current and former U.S. government officials. 'It's espionage on a massive scale,' says Paul B. Kurtz, a former high-ranking national security official. Government agencies reported 12,986 cyber security incidents to the U.S. Homeland Security Dept. last fiscal year, triple the number from two years earlier. Incursions on the military's networks were up 55% last year, says Lieutenant General Charles E. Croom, head of the Pentagon's Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations. Private targets like Booz Allen are just as vulnerable and pose just as much potential security risk. 'They have our information on their networks. They're building our weapon systems. You wouldn't want that in enemy hands,' Croom says. Cyber attackers 'are not denying, disrupting, or destroying operations--yet. But that doesn't mean they don't have the capability.'"

Comments

You shouldn't have military plans on the Net

[WillAffleckUW]

When I worked at Boeing (and before that the Army) - if you had secret plans, you didn't keep them on a box that was open to the Net.

The problem is that they're not even following their own rules - Win boxen have never been approved for holding Net-connected data - only in a stand-alone environment are they even considered, and even then in a secure room with full security protocols enforced.

We used to lock down our drives too. In locked cabinets. When we went home.

Re:You shouldn't have military plans on the Net

[zappepcs]

Not sure about all that, but when I had my TSEC it would not have been allowed to open secured data traffic to the Internet in any way shape or form. ELINT (USAF electronics spy types) would have laughed at such, then eyed you suspiciously for suggesting it. The military, my friends, is securely running on a darknet which requires more than will power and a h4x0rz kit to get into. This is all about scaring up some more money and a few more personal freedoms in the name of security from the evil terrorists, only this time it's a run up to take away some of your online rights and privacy. Don't even be fooled by the bullshit.

If the military was as susceptible as they might lead you to believe, they'd still be trying to stop spam emails from pouring out of the RNC servers. Holy shit man, if they were hackable someone on the NYT would already be posting the 'lost RNC emails' if you know what I mean... geez

Re:You PWN3D my Empire!

[janrinok]

Yeah the USA doesn't do cyber warfare because we see it as unethical and illegal and immoral

http://www.afcyber.af.mil/

You were being sarcastic, right?