Gates: Cyber Attacks A Constant Threat

(CBS)  Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday that the United States is "under cyber-attack virtually all the time, every day" and that the Defense Department plans to more than quadruple the number of cyber experts it employs to ward off such attacks.

In an interview for an upcoming edition of 60 Minutes, CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked Gates about the nation's cyber security after hackers stole specifications from a $300 billion fighter jet development program as well as other sensitive information.

In a series of spy attacks, hackers stole information about the Pentagon's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project and the Air Force's air traffic control system, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday.

The computer spies copied several terabytes of data from the Joint Strike Fighter project, the most expensive in Defense Department history, pertaining to the electronics and design systems of the aircraft, several current and former officials told the Journal.

Officials said the separate incursion into the air traffic control system could allow intruders to interfere with military aircraft.

Gates would not discuss the specifics of the attacks, but said, "I believe we still have security of the sensitive systems."

Generally, "We think we have pretty good control of our sensitive information both with respect to intelligence and equipment systems, but we, like everybody else, is under attack. Banks are under attack. Every country is under attack," Gates told Couric.

But, he said, "It's sometimes very difficult to figure out a home address on these attacks so one of the things that I am doing in the budget is significantly increasing the resources for cyber experts. We're going to more than quadruple the number of experts that we have in this area. We're devoting a lot more money to it."

The source of the espionage appears to be China, according to a former official, though the origin of any attacks could be masked. Chinese officials deny any involvement and say U.S. suspicion is the result of a "Cold War mentality."

Similar attacks have become more frequent in recent months, underscoring the increasingly heated battles taking place in cyberspace. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russian and Chinese spies gained access to the U.S. electrical grid, inserting software that could disrupt the system.

In the Joint Strike Fighter attack, officials said that while spies made off with some data, the most sensitive information is stored on separate, non-networked computers. But the vulnerability lies in the Pentagon's reliance on private defense contractors, some foreign, who have less-than-secure networks. The breaches apparently took place in Turkey and another U.S. ally nation, according to the report.

While there is no U.S. agency currently dedicated solely to cyber-security, the Obama administration is expected to propose a senior White House post to coordinate military efforts to guard against further breaches. The White House may also look to extend a $17 billion security initiative originally planned by the Bush administration.

"This is going to be an enduring problem and it is going to be a challenge not just for the Department of Defense but for the entirety of the United States," Gates said.

[tarha_c]

when i was four years old, i liked green beans, fresh ones, snapping, soaking, simmering them .. i liked word jumbles in the paper .. i liked oatmeal and oatmeal pies .. i liked talking to the furniture and foliage and all the endless peoples what lived inside them .. all those things were at my grandmom's house .. i liked her .. i liked everything around her .. i liked everything about her .. then i was dragged kicking and screaming to school .. i said repeatedly that i didn't want to go, that i wouldn't go .. in retrospect: there should have been millions and quadrillions dollars of satellite photos of millions and quadrillions dollars of infants and toddlets and old folk and their flower and weed creature body weather maps.

Yep, Jason Aldean says it very well on his new CD. You must listen to the song fast. Out with the old and pass it down stuff, leave the farmers almanac for the fire place and hit that 4 or 6 lane going through here and you can drive as fast as you want through that quantumn leap you just took me on!

[tarha_c]

You know that program too?

( :

[tarha_c]

The internet is gone or haven't any of you really noticed. It has been infiltrated with all these programs. That was the orginal intent and it has happened. But if you don't know about what they have already accomplished then you won't know what it looks like now. You'll just continue to play your games and they will continue to monitor your emails. They can make you a "Beta" which is a ***** for their elite or they might work on you to be an NASA, I'll let you all figure that one out. They might get you to attack you mate or your family or they will do it for you. Gates knows about it and you handlers on here knows he knows about all this crazy crap.

The communication systems are GONE!

[disabled-student]

The Chinese government should sue The Wall Street Journal for fabricating this piece of fiction.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53K0TG20090421

Several terabytes of data? I don't believe there is that much data even if you combined all the schematics for every piece of military equipment through all of history from every nation. That's including revisions, modifications and performance specs, etc, etc, etc.

And now the government is going to throw even more tax dollars at the problem...

What is up with Wall Street, is there no one there have any ethics left, not even in journalism?

[ksmit2]

It's true, we have sold out to China over the years like a drunken Frat Boy in his seventh year
of college without a major. I read an article several years ago about an analyst who worked
for Sandia labs in New Mex, who discovered them hacking into plans for an Apache (?) weapons system. When he personally traced the "hackers" to a small island off the China coast, he reported it to his superiors and the FBI. He was fired for "unauthorized activity", or
something along those lines. The only reason China hasn't broken our fingers is that they
need to protect the hundreds of billions they have invested, and are smart enough not to
shoot themselves in the foot.

[longtree-2009]

China owns us. they have loaned or bought our debt to something like 1 trillion dollars. a communist nation saving the supposed world's best democracy. how amazing is that? most of our products on store shelves are Made In China. we have who knows how many Chinese living here and most are loyal to the mainland in some way. some are caught spying. recently a tour of wealthy chinese were traveling the nation buying up real estate. wondering why we just don't give ourselves over to China. if a democracy has to rely on a communist nation to survive, then something just isn't right. China rules us whether we like to admit it or not. Without a draft in place, we don't have an ice cube's chance in a blazing fire of standing up to China. China's intelligence knows just how weak our current all volunteer military is to fight a conventional war. China also knows just how obese and out of shape americans are thus not able to field a large military on short notice. we are all hosed. start learning mandarin. with obama/hillary and their appeasement foreign policy, turn out the lights as the pary is over for us. sure is beginning to look like it.

[johnb8888]

Why shouldn't these foreigners be able to hack into any US computer? Thanks to the H1B visa program, hundreds of thousands of Chinese were trained at our best university and corporate labs, all so Bill Gates could fire middle-aged Americans and hire cheap coolie labor.

Truly, "the capitalists will sell you the rope with which you will hang them."

[disabled-student]

Did you read the part about several terabytes being downloaded. Whoever reported this is a total computer neophyte. It would probably take over a week to download that much data over the fastest internet connection. Just one terabyte could hold well over 128 full length DVD movies, including previews and commentaries, etc. I don't think it's possible for there to be that much F-35 data to fit even one DVD, unless there's a documentary on the Making of F-35 and the families of every contractor who worked on it.

OK, lets assume somehow the Chinese even managed to get the data. How was the copying and siphoning detected? Was it during (there would have been days for this to happen) or after the data was copied? If there was a log, why didn't they change or even delete it so there was no evidence? What did they leave behind a calling card? Were there any official with a name contributing to this story? I don't see the point of hiding their identity.

Now because of this news, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is going to increase budget for internet security? Hello, this country has a $10+ trillion deficit and growing. Why are you throwing money at a problem you don't understand, much less if it's true or not.

What kind of irresponsible reporting are they doing over at the Wall Street Journal? Are they ethically challenged too?

It seems strange if they could break in and steal trillion bytes of data, yet they don't take any measure to hide it.

And assuming Chinese are breaking into our system, why are there no officials denouncing these attacks? I'll tell you why, this news is pure balonie. That's right, I'm welling to admit I'm no professional internet security expert, but I think I know a fish when I see one... and this is one fishy story, like that one about the Chinese hacking into our power grid.

Read this...
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53K0TG20090421?sp=true

[mljohns00]

Move evidence that handing our government our money and our private information is a recipe for disaster.

[167irishboy]

Our invinicible attitude only entices foreign enemies. Why would a system that had this kind of information even be connected to a universal system that someone could hack into? We're so smart, we're dumb. Educated idiots.