Pentagon hit by huge cyber attack

14 July 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT The deputy defence secretary said future cyber attacks could even cause deaths The Pentagon has admitted it suffered a major cyber attack in which thousands of files were taken by foreign hackers.

Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn said that in a March attack and other breaches, hackers had taken information on "our most sensitive systems".

The admission came as the Pentagon rolled out a strategy for strengthening US cyber capabilities and addressing threats and attacks in cyberspace.

The plan would treat cyberspace in a similar manner to land, air and sea.

"In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," Mr Lynn said, unveiling the plan.

In a speech at National Defense University in Washington, Mr Lynn said about 24,000 files containing Pentagon data were stolen from a defence industry computer network in March, marking one of the largest cyber attacks in US history.

Extracting files

He said at least one attack - a previously revealed 2008 penetration of classified computer systems - had come from a foreign intelligence service, and in an interview ahead of the speech said the Pentagon believed the March attack had been perpetrated by a foreign government.

Previous cyber attacks have been blamed on China or Russia.

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Keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye”

End Quote William Lynn Deputy Defense Secretary "We have a pretty good idea" who did it, he told the Associated Press news agency.

In his speech, he said some of the stolen data was "mundane, like the specifications for small parts of tanks, airplanes, and submarines.

"But a great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols," he said.

Mr Lynn said cyber attacks in the future would not only focus on stealing data but also damaging US defences or even causing deaths.

He added that virtual intruders have previously tried to extract files related to missile tracking systems and the Joint Strike Fighter.

Though nations like China and Russia have been blamed for many previous cyber attacks, the Pentagon fears terrorist groups could eventually strike American computer networks and steal data.

"Keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye," Mr Lynn said.

'Too aggressive'

He added that information technology has become so important to the US government that it "virtually guarantees that future adversaries will target our dependence on it".

Mr Lynn said the Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace was defensive, countering earlier criticism that the strategy might be too aggressive.

In a release accompanying the new strategy, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said it was "critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the threats we're facing".

The news comes one month after the Pentagon said it was building its own "scale model" of the internet to carry out cyber war games.

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Hackers attack US defence group

12 July 2011 Last updated at 11:06 GMT The stolen data was put on a file-sharing website so anyone can download it Hacker group Anonymous has released a cache of data it claims to have stolen from US defence consultant Booz Allen Hamilton.

A file containing more than 90,000 e-mail addresses plus passwords, logins and other information was put on The Pirate Bay file-sharing site.

The group said it stole the information by targeting a poorly protected server on the defence firm's network.

Booz Allen Hamilton declined to comment on the incident.

In text accompanying the download package, Anonymous said it was "surprised" at how easy it was to infiltrate the server given the consulting firm's record of working on defence and homeland security.

The attack was carried out under the banner of the "Anti Sec" campaign that was originated by the short-lived LulzSec hacking group.

That hacker collective "disbanded" in late June following a spree of hack attacks on high profile targets. Many of its members are thought to have joined up with Anonymous.

As well as grabbing e-mails, passwords and a copy of a database, Anonymous said it had also got hold of lots of other material that it planned to use to attack other government agencies and federal contractors.

Booz Allen told Reuters it had no comment to make about the alleged attack, adding that company policy meant it could not discuss "specific threats or actions taken against our systems".

Commenting on the attack, Chester Wisniewski from security firm Sophos, said the attack's significance may lie in what happens to the addresses now they have been stolen.

"...there clearly is demand for information about individuals related to the US defence that can be used to compromise their accounts and computers," he wrote.

The Anonymous hacking group came to prominence thanks to the actions it took in defence of the Wikileaks whistle-blowing website. Among other things, Anonymous helped to co-ordinate attacks on companies, including Mastercard and Amazon, which it felt did not do enough to help Wikileaks.

The latest attack follows recent raids by police forces in Spain, Turkey and Italy that resulted in the arrest of suspected members of Anonymous.

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IMF hit by 'major' cyber attack

12 June 2011 Last updated at 01:25 GMT IMF told staff it had detected suspicious file transfers on its networks The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack.

Officials at the fund gave few details but said the attack earlier this year had been "a very major breach" of its systems, the New York Times reports.

Cyber security officials said the hack was designed to install software to create a "digital insider presence".

The IMF, which holds sensitive economic data about many countries, said its operations were fully functional.

The cyber attack took place over several months, and happened before former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested over sexual assault charges.

"I can confirm that we are investigating an incident," said spokesman David Hawley.

"I am not in a position to elaborate further on the extent of the cyber security incident."

The New York Times said IMF staff had been told of the intrusion on Wednesday by e-mail, but that the Fund had not made a public announcement.

The e-mail warned that "suspicious file transfers" had been detected and that an investigation had shown a desktop at the Fund had been "compromised and used to access some Fund systems".

There was "no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes," it said.

High profile breaches

A cyber security expert told Reuters the infiltration had been a targeted attack, which installed software designed to give a nation state a "digital insider presence" at the IMF.

"The code was developed and released for this purpose," said Tom Kellerman, who has worked for the Fund.

Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government; however such attacks are very difficult to trace.

The World Bank said it briefly cut its network connection with the Fund out "an abundance of caution".

"The World Bank Group, like any other large organisation, is increasingly aware of potential threats to the security of our information system and we are constantly working to improve our defences," said spokesman Rich Mills.

The incident is the latest in a string of high profile cyber security breaches.

In April, the Sony Playstation network was shut down after hackers stole the personal data of about 100 million accounts and in May, US defence firm Lockheed Martin said it had come under a significant cyber-attack.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told the US Congress earlier this week that a large-scale cyber attack while would cripples power, finance, security and governmental systems was "a real possibility in today's world".

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Citibank confirms hacking attack

9 June 2011 Last updated at 09:33 GMT The bank is under fire for not telling customers about the May breach Hackers have stolen data from thousands of Citibank customers in the US, the bank has confirmed.

The breach exposed the names of customers, account numbers and contact information.

But other key data, such as date of birth and card security codes were not compromised, the bank said in a statement.

Citigroup is the latest in a string of high profile companies to be targeted by cyber criminals.

It has been criticised for not telling customers about the breach when it happened in May.

"We are contacting customers whose information was impacted. Citi has implemented enhanced procedures to prevent a recurrence of this type of event," a Citi spokesman said in a statement to the Reuters news agency.

High alert

Around 1% of the bank's 21m account holders were affected - around 210,000 individuals.

The statement did not detail how the breach had occurred.

Security experts said the thieves may try to get hold of more information from those targeted.

"While Citi customers aren't likely to have fraudulent charges against their accounts as a result of this breach, they are likely to encounter social engineering attempts to enable further crime," blogged Chester Wisniewski, a consultant for security firm Sophos.

"Customers affected by this incident should be on high alert for scams, phishing and phone calls purporting to be from Citibank and their subsidiaries," he added.

Citigroup in the latest firm to be hacked in recent weeks. Japanese electronics group Sony is still recovering from the theft of millions of pieces of data from its network.

While security firm RSA has offered to replace the 40 million secure tokens used by people to log into banks after it emerged that key data that operates them had been stolen in March.

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