Posted on 11/20/2008 4:43:58 PM PST by Sammy67
Edited on 11/20/2008 4:48:23 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.
The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Sounds like a Trojan Dragon.
Just wow! The news seems to be getting worse by the hour.
They'd be better off banning the use of Windows.
Tech, security pings
What the hell...
The “weak one” is not even in office yet and we are under attack, Hope for the best but you better be prepared for the worst especially with these bumbling fools who have taken over a once great nation!
China. They’ve been moving towards this capability for years.
I hope the fact that we never hear anything about American cyberwar capability comes from the fact that the military treats it as one of the most crucial weapons we have, rather than something that is beneath us as a nation.
Ummm... even my company already bans the use of external flash drives and DVD’s.
Well, now that our enemies have little to fear, most likely this will just be the start of a rash of attacks on America, cyber or otherwise....
China’s cyber army is preparing to march on America, says Pentagon
Just wait ‘till they buy GM and Chrysler...
This ban is on all govt owned computers, not jus those that handle classified data.
Agreed. I met the head of Information Assurance for the Air Force and he told me the following stark fact. Surprisingly, it was unclassified.
"To all of my fellow officers, in all other service branches and even the Air Force, our enemy is radical Islam. They fight the War on Terror."
"As for me, I stand alone. I have a single enemy. It is China. We have thousands of attempted network penetrations originating in China each day."
"We will win the War on Terror. But our real enemy is China."
Chilling thought. I hope we are sending back just what they are dishing out, in spades.
DOD bans the use of removable, flash-type drives on all government computers
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58951
And your company's sysadmin also know people are probably ignoring those requests, too. I read about a security audit where the auditors simply tossed a handful of usb thumb drives outside their customer's office. Each key had a trojan on it that didn't do any harm, but did let the auditors know it was used. By the end of the day they "heard" from many of those drives.
One thing I've though odd is that there isn't a larger market for thin client devices or workstation PCs built with better external-device-lockout capability. Most workstations are built with making life simple for the computer-ignorant, which also makes life simple for attackers, too.
That is a very profound statement, and true statement. DoD already has moved toward Apple servers. They should adopt Mac desktops and laptops also. Our troops deserve the best.
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