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Cyber Vulnerabilities Found In Navy's Newest Warship

Posted by samzenpus on from the scuttle-the-ship's-computer dept.

An anonymous reader writes with some potentially troubling news about some security issues with the Navy's newest class of coastal warships."A Navy team of computer hacking experts found some deficiencies when assigned to try to penetrate the network of the USS Freedom, the lead vessel in the $37 billion Littoral Combat Ship program, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Freedom arrived in Singapore last week for an eight-month stay, which its builder, Lockheed Martin Corp., hopes will stimulate Asian demand for the fast, agile and stealthy ships. 'We do these types of inspections across the fleet to find individual vulnerabilities, as well as fleet-wide trends,' said the official."

8 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Some Things Never Change by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Informative

    USS Yorktown circa 1997

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    1. Re:Some Things Never Change by CanEHdian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Such systems should only be run on a completely independent tactical network and run only on bulletproof RTOS's.

      Plus you need an emergency backup that is independent of the network so you can run everything "locally" and have commands transferred from the bridge the old way.

      --
      When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
  2. I can't imagine... by The+Real+Dr+John · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can't imagine spending $37 billion dollars of taxpayers money on anything better for the the taxpayers than some more naval vessels. Why waste it on schools, or roads or infrastructure, when you can have... um, well, some nice new ships for the Navy to sail around in?

    --
    A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
    1. Re:I can't imagine... by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative

      U.S. spending per student on education is among the highest in the world. Of all the problems which plague our education system, funding is definitely not one of them.

      One can argue defense spending needs to be reduced. But proposing it should be spent on schools instead is just shifting money from one bloated program to another.

  3. Re:SITTING DUCK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dumbass, that was a scene from "A Few Good Men", released in 1992.

  4. Re:It's an.... by nametaken · · Score: 3, Informative

    That is like an official coming out and saying that some new Drone over in Iraq that can be taking control over by yelling your name and location into radio ch-4.

    No. We have no reason to think it's anything like that.

    The important takeaway is that the Navy is actually checking their shit. The deficiencies in network security were found by Navy pen testers, determined to be "not severe enough to prevent the deployment", the results are classified, and they're working on improving them.

    That's how things get done. Test and improve, all the time, because no part of any complex system is, or ever will be, perfect.

  5. Re:SITTING DUCK by the_other_chewey · · Score: 3, Informative

    You must have seen another movie than the rest of us.

    In our version, the guy giving the "you can't handle the truth"
    speech is not one of the good guys...

  6. Re:SITTING DUCK by LordLimecat · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hes actually court marshalled, and the guys "just following orders" get dishonorably discharged for "conduct unbecoming a US marine".