Cyber Attacks On US Military Jump Sharply In 2009

angry tapir writes "Cyber attacks on the US Department of Defense — many of them coming from China — have jumped sharply in 2009, a US congressional committee has reported. Citing data provided by the US Strategic Command, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that there were 43,785 malicious cyber incidents targeting Defense systems in the first half of the year. That's a big jump. In all of 2008, there were 54,640 such incidents. If cyber attacks maintain this pace, the yearly increase will be around 60 percent. The full report (PDF) is available online."

Comments

They still don't like us?

[hwyhobo]

And here I was, thinking that the Presidential Apology Tour would make it all better.

On a serious note, by moving our high tech industry offshore we have helped to make it happen. Now, with a broken economy, we appear weak, and we invite ridicule and attack. Clever bandaids added to firewalls will make little difference long term. We need to regain strength and respect. This is not just a technical problem. Our recent administrations (Republicrats and Demopublican alike) through suicidal short-sighted policies aimed only to benefit a few fat cats have made us an easy target. Such is the fate of a fallen giant. Everyone wants to kick him. After all, what are we going to do about it?

Re:They still don't like us?

[1s44c]

hardening systems thru more secure software (abandon Windows -- whether you like it or not, it's the best target due to being used by everyone).

Not quite. Windows is the best target due to its low coding standards, the huge number of security holes it suffers from, and it's unmanageably.

The fact it is used heavily doesn't make it any more or less secure.

define "attack"

[zkrige]

I have linux boxes all over the place and there are literally thousands of ssh/sft/etc attempts on each box each day. None of them are successful though. Can I claim that my boxes have more attacks than the US Military?

Re:define "attack"

[1s44c]

I have linux boxes all over the place and there are literally thousands of ssh/sft/etc attempts on each box each day. None of them are successful though.

Can I claim that my boxes have more attacks than the US Military?

If the US government would give you a 100 dollars to investigate each attack you might be tempted to.

Not surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

China is in a cold war with the west. These attacks are also going after European and Oceania countries. The question is, when will the west realize that the same means that was used to stop USSR is being quietly used against the West.

Garbage

[kestasjk]

The PRC is also recruiting from its growing population of technically skilled people, including those from the private sector, to increase its cyber capabilities. It is recruiting skilled cyber operators from information technology firms and computer science programs into the ranks of numerous Information Warfare Militia units.

"cyber operators".. "Information Warfare Militia".. What?
Try actually reading the linked PDF and see if you can take it seriously. All this stuff about increased "cyber attack incidences" and I can find absolutely nothing explicitly linking any incident with the Chinese government or anything even making explicit what a "cyber attack incident" is. (Also "cyber warfare" is a pretty small part of the report itself; the report isn't about "cyber-warfare", but US-China relations.)

cyber-space (the electro-magnetic spectrum)

I think that quote just about sums it up. I am stunned that people here on slashdot are taking this seriously, this is the sort of thing I'd expect to see on Fox News.

Re:Garbage

[DNS-and-BIND]

Excuse me sir, are you a member of the 50 cent gang? This isn't anything to do with the rapper, but rather refers to pro-China internet commenters. For the three of you out there who have never heard of this, allow me to introduce:

50 Cent Party is the name for paid[1] astroturfing bloggers operating since 2005 from People's Republic of China, whose role is posting comments favorable towards the government policies to skew the public opinion on various Internet message boards. They are named by the 50 Chinese cents, or 5 mao, they are paid per such post

If you're not convinced and think this must be some sort of Fox News conspiracy (ooo, a different point of view, ignore it!) I provide a link to that paragon of correctness the BBC to explain it in simple terms that you can understand.

China is using an increasing number of paid "internet commentators" in a sophisticated attempt to control public opinion. These commentators are used by government departments to scour the internet for bad news - and then negate it.

Please note that these are not actually pro-China commenters, but merely anti-anti-China commenters. Indeed I don't see anything pro-China in your post. You've even Americanized it by attempting to tie it to Fox News, something that Americans will understand on a cultural level, rather than something baffling like attempting to tie it to those perfidious seperatists in Tibet or Xinjiang.

Information warfare militia in China do exist. It's like this: young men like to hack. They also like to belong to something larger than themselves, and China is pretty darn big. The USA is China's Main Enemy and is a natural target for any attack. They go looking for the biggest target they can find, and sometimes they get something worthwhile. Someone's dad is a major in the PLA, and they hand the documents off to him, and later a quiet "attaboy" comes down the channel with a request to send anything else they might find during their travels. They're basically like any irregular force - mainly useful in keeping the enemy busy with dealing with low-level annoyances, or occupying territory. There were American citizens who tried to hack the Iraqi defense system during the 1991 war (hi Par!) even though that was the last thing on Schwartzkopf's mind. They mostly failed due to the lack of computers in Iraq or anything worthwhile to hack.

If you're not in the 50-cent gang, I apologize for calling you out. Although, it sure sucks when you're on the same side of the argument with totalitarian thugs. At least they're getting paid, they're doing it as a job. What are you getting out of it?

Re:Garbage

[justinlee37]

Who knows, maybe you are the one spreading propaganda. Someone could have faked the evidence of this "50 cent gang" in order to make China look bad. Basically both sides have the motivation to do this sort of thing and it can be hard to figure out who is who sometimes.

Nope. You are not targeted

[WindBourne]

You are simply the result of the many worms working its way through the net. All Western DOD's are under attack and are actively targeted.

What does this tell me? Nothing!

[Jaro]

Does this really tell me anything? Not really? What kind of "cyber attacks" are that? SSH break-in attempts? Bots looking for known holes? Script kiddies? Mail relay attempts? Or targeted attempts specifically designed to get access to their system? If I go for the script kiddie/SSH category I get around 25.000 attempts a year on one server alone, according to ossec.
This could also just mean that the number of attacks has risen generally and not specifically against the DoD.

So many unanswered questions ...