Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack

FoxNews ^ | 11/20/08

[Sammy67]

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.

[Swordmaker]

From a Gizmodo issue of just 11 months ago, today:

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U.S. Army to Instigate Wider Mac Implementation

By Haroon Malik, 1:00 PM on Sat Dec 22 2007

The U.S. Army's office of enterprise information systems is introducing Mac computers to its systems, it is hoped the move will render the Army less open to attack from hackers. Further, by having Macs as part of their system, it is less likely a single attack will take effect across the whole network. These new measures come at a time when the security of digital information has increasingly been under threat.

Hackers, in the past year, have managed to procure top-secret information directly from Pentagon computers, as well as from major military contractors, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Growing concern for the safety of sensitive information has led to the introduction of the Mac computers as a way to thwart the efforts of hackers prematurely. At present, Apple provides some 20,000 of the Army's 700,000 servers and desktops. This may be a very small proportion, but the number is growing annually. This fact sits a little uneasy with us:

Although we would not trade our Macs for Aladdin's lamp, calling them in to the Army's systems to further its security is questionable. First thing, we are not great believers that Macs offer greater protection than Microsoft's offerings; secondly, even if they did; where there's a will, there's a way. That way may not be so difficult with Apple computers, making the route of attack potentially easier. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Apple's Mac OS X license state military use of its software is forbidden?

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Gizmodo's trepidation about Mac's security flies in the face of reality. Their comment that if "there is a will, there's a way" is particularly wrong as every willful attempt to access a Mac from outside has failed; every successful breech of OS X's defenses has required participation from the Mac's user—from the inside out.

They are right that Apple's consumer license prohibits military uses, but that doesn't mean that Apple doesn't offer other forms of licensing.

[Bommer]

Can anyone tell me how you plug a DVD into a USB port?

Its called an external DVD player with a USB connector. I have one.

If the Pentagon had any brains, disable all USB ports but what you need for a keyboard and or mouse if they do not have PS2 connectors.

[gogogodzilla]

I know about external DVD drives. But I was commenting on the poorly written article. DVD’s can’t be plugged into anything. They can only be placed in DVD drives.

So to have an article written with such a glaring error is just another sign of shoddy journalism.

[Sun]

We have to keep bugging our reps to get ahead of this.

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/10/cyber-attack-linked-company-russian-spies/

“Cyber Attack Linked to Company of Former Russian Spies”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “FOX News has learned the recent cyber attack on the U.S. military’s classified computer network has been traced to a front company operated by several former Russian spies.”

By Jennifer Griffin
FOXNews.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2008