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Pentagon confirms 2008 hack was ‘most significant breach of U.S. military PCs ever
"A 'significant compromise' of U.S. military networks has been acknowledged by the Pentagon two years after the breach was reported in the press," John P. Mello Jr. reports for TechNewsWorld. "'In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks,' Deputy Secretary of Defense William S. Lynn III wrote in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs.
Mello Jr. reports, "'It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East,' he explained. 'The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command. That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control. This previously classified incident was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever, and it served as an important wake-up call.'"
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like they've finally begun to answer that call: Apple's Mac shipments to government grew 200%, sixteen times faster than the overall PC market's 12.1%, in Q2 2010 - August 23, 2010
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...omments/26407/
Mello Jr. reports, "The malware originating from the infected USB drive was dubbed 'Agent.btz.' It's a variation of the SillyFDC worm."
Full article here.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/P...wlc=1282851400
MacDailyNews Take: According to Symantec, the SillyFDC worm affected Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows Vista, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000.
Macintosh unaffected.
Mello Jr. reports, "'It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East,' he explained. 'The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command. That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control. This previously classified incident was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever, and it served as an important wake-up call.'"
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like they've finally begun to answer that call: Apple's Mac shipments to government grew 200%, sixteen times faster than the overall PC market's 12.1%, in Q2 2010 - August 23, 2010
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/we...omments/26407/
Mello Jr. reports, "The malware originating from the infected USB drive was dubbed 'Agent.btz.' It's a variation of the SillyFDC worm."
Full article here.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/P...wlc=1282851400
MacDailyNews Take: According to Symantec, the SillyFDC worm affected Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows Vista, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000.
Macintosh unaffected.