Spy's USB Drive Caused Worst US Military Breach
Malware loaded from a USB drive = bad.
A U.S. Military security incident from 2008 has finally been revealed and detailed by Deputy Secretary of Defense William J. Lynn III in a new article he wrote for Foreign Affairs magazine.
Lynn opened his article with this explanation:
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks. It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East. The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command. That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control. It was a network administrator's worst fear: a rogue program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary.
Deputy Secretary of Defense characterized this as "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever," and it marked a turning point in the U.S. cyberdefense strategy, starting with Operation Buckshot Yankee.
Lynn estimated that more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are trying to break into U.S. networks, which presents a sizeable challenge for the military's global communications backbone, which covers 15,000 networks and 7 million computing devices in dozens of countries.
(Source: Cnet.)
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ares1214 So mix this, with the intel mind reading stuff, and the apple liquid alloy metal, and we have Skynet...Reply -
jesman1985 nothing surprises me anymore.. if it was something "top secret" they wouldnt be broadcasting it in the first place.. the medias full of it..Reply -
joebob2000 Deputy Secretary of Defense characterized this as "the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever," and it marked a turning point in the U.S. cyberdefense strategy, starting with Operation Buckshot Yankee.
Lynn estimated that more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are trying to break into U.S. networks, which presents a sizeable challenge for the military's global communications backbone, which covers 15,000 networks and 7 million computing devices in dozens of countries.
LOL WAT
So this is what it took for them to say "no flash drives from outside computers!" or maybe, just maybe, they used one of the zillion available methods to disallow flash drive usage altogether. How hard is that idea to come up with? What about sandboxing any external drive? Persistent internal firewalls? There are so many ways to stop this from happening that it defies belief. Hell, a compromised flash drive was the plot of a damn movie prior to 2008 (the Recruit, 2003) and they still didn't think it was worth safeguarding??? It's nice to see the $600 billion or so per year is well spent! -
The best part of this is the fact there is an "Ironkey the worlds most SECURE flash drive" add right beside the comment box.Reply
well played Ironkey. -
Draven35 naah, i saw an ad for kapersky antivirus...Reply
Btw, this is why computers connected to secure networks were not allowed to have floppy drives for years. -
rollerdisco ttwerdunThe best part of this is the fact there is an "Ironkey the worlds most SECURE flash drive" add right beside the comment box.well played Ironkey.Reply
Really i have adds for summer's eve........ what are they trying to tell me? -
I knew as i was posting, that it was a banner that would be diffrent for everyone. Ah well just funny for me then:DReply