Pentagon computers attacked with flash drive


WASHINGTON –(AP) A foreign spy agency pulled off the most serious
breach of Pentagon computer networks ever by inserting a flash drive
into a U.S. military laptop, a top defense official said Wednesday.

The previously classified incident, which took place in 2008 in the
Middle East, was disclosed in a magazine article by Deputy Defense
Secretary William J. Lynn and released by the Pentagon Wednesday.

He said a "malicious code" on the flash drive spread undetected on both
classified and unclassified Pentagon systems, "establishing what
amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to
servers under foreign control."

"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," Lynn wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs. "This
.... was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever and
it served as an important wake-up call."

The Pentagon operation to counter the attack, known as Operation
Buckshot Yankee, marked a turning point in U.S. cyberdefense strategy,
Lynn said.

In November 2008, the Defense Department banned the use of the small
high-tech storage devices that are used to move data from one computer
to another. The ban was partially lifted early this year with the
approval of limited use of the devices.

Lynn did not disclose what, if any, military secrets may have been
stolen in the 2008 penetration of the system, what nation orchestrated
the attack, nor whether there were any other repercussions.

The article went on to warn that U.S. adversaries can threaten American
military might without building stealth fighters, aircraft carriers or
other expensive weapons systems.

"A dozen determined computer programmers can, if they find a
vulnerability to exploit, threaten the United States' global logistics
network, steal its operational plans, blind its intelligence
capabilities, or hinder its ability to deliver weapons on target," Lynn
wrote.

"Knowing this, many militaries are developing offensive capabilities in
cyberspace, and more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations are
trying to break into U.S. networks," he said.

Defense officials have said repeatedly that the military system of some
15,000 computer networks and seven million computers suffers millions of
probes a day with threats coming from a range of attackers from routine
hackers to foreign governments looking to steal sensitive information or
bring down critical, life-sustaining systems.