Defense official discloses cyberattack

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.

In an article to be published Wednesday discussing the Pentagon's cyberstrategy, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says malicious code placed on the drive by a foreign intelligence agency uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. military'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," he says in the Foreign Affairs article.

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Lynn's decision to declassify an incident that Defense officials had kept secret reflects the Pentagon's desire to raise congressional and public concern over the threats facing U.S. computer systems, experts said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/24/AR2010082406154.html?hpid=topnews

[bemildred]

1. Flash drive eh? Who could have predicted this? nt

[TalkingDog]

2. Shocking! A backdoor built into a commonly used piece of computer equipment

without the owner's knowledge? Who do they think they are, Bill Gates?

[Downwinder]

3. Should have spent some of the time used trying to get into other systems

to secure their system.