24000 files stolen from Pentagon
The U.S. Defense Department Thursday unveiled its strategy for defending military computer networks and responding to growing threats in cyberspace, The Voice of America reports.
The Pentagon has disclosed that it suffered one of its largest ever losses of sensitive data in March when 24,000 files were stolen in a cyber-attack by a foreign government.
In a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said the increasing dependence on information technology virtually guarantees future enemies will target the Pentagon's reliance on computer networks for military operations.
He said a nation state was behind the theft, but declined to identify which country was involved.
Lynn said intrusions in the last few years had compromised some of the Pentagon's most sensitive systems, including surveillance technologies and satellite communications systems.
"Our assessment is that cyber attacks will be a significant component of any future conflict, whether it involves major nations, rogue states or terrorist groups," he said.
Lynn said tools capable of disrupting or destroying critical networks and causing physical damage exist today, making a strategic shift in the ever evolving danger in cyber space. "As a result of this threat, keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye. In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," he said.
The U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary said the Pentagon is also working with allies and international partners to build collective cyber defenses. "These active defenses use sensors, software, and signatures to detect and stop malicious code before it affects our operations, thereby denying the benefit of an attack," Lynn said.
Many cyber attacks in the past have been blamed on China or Russia. One of the Pentagon's fears is that eventually a terrorist group, with less at stake than a foreign government, will acquire the ability to not only penetrate U.S. computer networks to steal data but to attack them in ways that damage U.S. defenses or even cause deaths.
