CybersecurityPentagon describes 2008 attack as a "network administrator's worst fear"
The Pentagon admits that a 2008 cyber attack on the Pentagon’s computers was a “network administrator’s worst fear”; a USB device was
plugged into a military laptop located on an undisclosed base in the Middle East, causing a malicious code to link highly sensitive machines to networks controlled by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency
The Pentagon has described what it calls the “most significant breach of US military computers ever,” in which a flash drive in 2008 was used to infect large numbers of computers, including those used by the Central Command overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the device was plugged into a military laptop located on an undisclosed base in the Middle East, malicious code soon linked highly sensitive machines to networks controlled by an unnamed foreign intelligence agency, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III wrote in the first official account of the episode.
“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 wrote in an article published today (Wednesday) in the current issue of Foreign Affairs, according to the Washington Post.
“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.”
Dan Goodin writes that military officials responded with a counter attack known as Operation Buckshot Yankee, which Lynn characterized as a turning point in the Pentagon’s computer defense strategy. Among the steps initially taken was the banning of USB devices by the Defense Department, a curb that has since been modified slightly.
Goodin notes that Lynn’s account comes almost two years after the Los Angeles Times reported an unofficial account of the incident, that claimed it most likely originated in Russia. The Foreign Affairs article signals attempts by the Pentagon to raise awareness to the growing vulnerability of the U.S. military to computer-based attacks, which often allow adversaries with modest means to inflict disproportionate damage.
“A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States’s global logistics network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence capabilities or hinder its ability to deliver weapons on target,” Lynn wrote.
Last month, a retired U.S. general made many of the same points, comparing the network world to the highly vulnerable North German plain that has been invaded repeatedly over the past several centuries.
