Lodon Times--- Russian Hack DoD computers

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military secrets

FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN WASHINGTON

RUSSIAN cyber-spies with funding from Moscow have hacked into the computer network of the US Defence Department, extracting information that may include classified naval codes and data on missile-guidance systems. The breach of security, code-named Moonlight Maze, is so serious that all workers at the Department have had to change their passwords in an effort to fight off the threat, Newsweek magazine reports today.

The intruders are believed to be expert hackers from the Russian Academy of Sciences, a government-supported body that has links with the Russian military. Officials at the Pentagon reportedly called the high-tech espionage "a state-sponsored Russian intelligence effort to get US technology", while Defence Department officials described the intrusion as "sophisticated, patient and persistent".

The Russian hackers, who also targeted the Department of Energy, military contractors and civilian academics, apparently gained access to the networks at "root level", denied to all but the most senior administrators, and may have penetrated the so-called technological firewall that separates the merely private but unclassified sections of the system from the most sensitive secret military data.

Security experts first spotted the incursions in January, and then "back-hacked" the source of the intrusion to Russia, leading to a cat-and-mouse hunt through the network. The attackers subsequently worked out a way to enter the systems undetected but still left "tracks".

"We're in the middle of a cyber-war," John Hamre, the Deputy Secretary of Defence, is reported as saying. Washington has yet to make an official complaint to Moscow.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 13, 1999

Answers

Got a link?

-- (link@please.link), September 13, 1999.

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/frontpage.html?1124027

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 13, 1999.

Here ye go:

The Times (UK), September 13 1999 -- Cyber-war Russians hack into military secrets

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), September 13, 1999.


What... couldn't they come up with a campaign contribution?

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 13, 1999.

sorry that should say London Times in the title of this thread.

-- Johnny (JLJTM@BELLSOUTH.NET), September 13, 1999.


ROTHLMAO!! THAT WAS GREAT LINDA.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), September 13, 1999.

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