Cyber Vulnerabilities Found In Navy's Newest Warship

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."

Comments

Some Things Never Change

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

USS Yorktown circa 1997

Re:Some Things Never Change

[maxwell demon]

USS Yorktown circa 1997

Interesting quote from there:

“Because of politics, some things are being forced on us that without political pressure we might not do, like Windows NT. If it were up to me I probably would not have used Windows NT in this particular application ... Refining that is an ongoing process ... Unix is a better system for control of equipment and machinery, whereas NT is a better system for the transfer of information and data. NT has never been fully refined and there are times when we have had shutdowns that resulted from NT.”

—Ron Redman

I can't imagine...

[The Real Dr John]

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?

Windows for Warships 2012 now with more touch cont

[Joe_Dragon]

Windows for Warships 2012 now with more touch controls.

To fire swipe the screen.

SITTING DUCK

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

The software and network vulnerability issues are the least of the problems for this Water Turkey.

The LCS is not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment
From the Congressional Research Service: "The LCS is not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment as evidenced by the limited shock hardened design and results of full scale testing of representative hull structures completed in December 2006."

"So, we have a warship design that is not expected to fight and survive in the very environment in which it was produced to do so. Poorly-armed, poorly-protected, with an over-abundance of speed that will eat through a fuel supply in half a day."

This New $350 Million Combat Ship Has Nearly Two Equipment Failures For Every Million Bucks

"The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) researches Pentagon weapons procurement and has published its April 23 letter to members of the House Armed Services Committee, who have themselves 'repeatedly questioned the utility and effectiveness of the Littoral Combat Ship program' in the past.... From the time the Navy accepted LCS-1 from Lockheed Martin on September 18, 2008, until the ship went into dry dock in the summer of 2011 - not even 1,000 days later - there were 640 chargeable equipment failures on the ship. On average then, something on the ship failed on two out of every three days."

Hello US Navy! Thanks for accelerating climate-change, while subverting your mission and betraying the tax payer. I guess your next job, at Lockheed or General Dynamics will be worth all the criminal fraud and needless deaths.

Re:SITTING DUCK

[ColdWetDog]

While the articles are pretty inflammatory and don't really have any details (including the issue with cracks - that's not unexpected in prototypes of high performance watercraft, they can usually be fixed), the core issue is this:

This harsh analysis comes just days after the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report concluding the Defense Department has a problem with committing to expensive new weapons systems before development is complete.

This makes no sense whatsoever except as a lucrative cash cow (even a spherical one) for the contractors.

If you want cutting edge, create a skunk works (maybe the marine equivalent would be slime eel works?). Let them work out the bugs. Your PRODUCTION ships are well defined technology, as kept as simple as possible. Designed for real mission work - not fantasy battles with aliens. Less sizzle, more steak.

Re:SITTING DUCK

[maxwell demon]

And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.

Wouldn't you then prefer that the guns actually work?

Re:SITTING DUCK

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Why don't we save the country...

By slashing Military spending to just double the closest US rival - from 500%?

Re:SITTING DUCK

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:SITTING DUCK

[CrimsonAvenger]

WAR!

What is is good for?

Ask that of the survivors of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, among others.

We might also mention the American Civil War and the American Revolution.

Taking down Napoleon might count too.

What a name.

[Stormwatch]

USS Freedom.

What a name, just like something out of a satirical comic book. Seriously, you 'murricans seem to have a fetish for the word, but the more you use it, the more you seem to forget its actual meaning.

Re:Windows for Warships 2012 now with more touch c

[Beardo the Bearded]

It looks like you're trying to return fire. Would you like help with this?

0 find hostile ships in the area using cloud services (recommended)
0 check online help for rules of engagement.
0 I don't need help. I can return fire by myself.