Who is hacking the DOD and watching our military???

Seems that the US military is bieng attacked on a daily basis. An Arcticle on ZDNet, a populare computing site, states that hacks from abroad are on the rise at an alarming rate.

U.S. military computer networks are under constant attack. And the rate of attack is skyrocketing, from 300 in 2003 to more than 75,000 last year. "Our adversaries are able to inflict a substantial amount of harassment and a measurable amount of damage upon DOD communications networks at practically no cost to themselves," says the director of technology for the military group responsible for defending networks.

IS this Al-Qeada? Israel? North Korea? Iran? Nope, it just happens to be a country who is presently attempting to buy our oil companies, duplicate our technonlogy for half the cost, and is running one of the largest military excercises ever with Russia. That'si rght, It's Big Red, China.

Army chief of staff Jack Keane:
"The Chinese were doing this on a regular basis. That’s a given. They’re very aggressively getting capability. It’s common knowledge in the Pentagon. One Army officer says a Trojan horse virus was used to breach a system and download information about the capabilities of a future Army command and control system "for eight months before the service detected a security breach."

If they are getting into the DOD this easily, that means that the private sector must be under full fledged assault also. This would answer some questions as to why their military equipment always looks like ours with a nose job. Gone are the days of microfilm....

With the Russian excercise, a poor rice harvest, the need for oil and the need to come into its own, this is all troubling news. As well as this statistic...

DOD officials think can contain 90% of the attacks through better procedures but as many as 10% of attacks may get through because of advanced hacking procedures.

10 % is WAY too much...how far off is the invasion of Taiwan? I say 2007 during the presidential primaries.

Intresting ... I remember playing this computer game called "Command & Conquer Generals" a few years ago, with the Chinese forces you could buy hackers that hack the internet and give your team money, was like $5-10/second. They could also disable buildings and such.

Another thing turned into reality from the game, though a bit offtopic, is the brit APC that "zaps" grenades, rocket propelled grenades etc. In the game you could buy a "Paladin Tank" with the US forces, which had the same ability, it zaps rockets.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Heh.

SwearBear, don't forget about black lotus, she can hack really fast and steal enemy buildings hehehe.

Pentagon figures show that more attempts to scan Defense Department systems come from China, which has 119 million Internet users, than from any other country. VanPutte said this does not mean that China is where all the probes start, only that it is "the last hop" before they reach their targets.

Longer article in the Washington Post

www.washingtonpost.com...

[edit on 25-8-2005 by esdad71]

The problem with DoD and others is just one.
The best Sys network admins are in private corporations, where they get very well paid, not on State Deps.


Peace
Crustas

The attacks are so bad on Gov servers that unless your ip address is trusted you are not getting in period. At least for the UNIX side of the house.

As a matter of fact at one point the attacks were getting so bad that all the US Gov networks (in Europe) stopped all incoming traffic from Italy. If it has an Italain subnet its stopped dead at the firewall.

Originally posted by crustas
The problem with DoD and others is just one.
The best Sys network admins are in private corporations, where they get very well paid, not on State Deps.

Truer words were never spoken. Its hard to build an iron-clad defense with the lowest bidder. When I was on Active duty, I was amazed at the smoke-and-mirrors dog-and-pony shows that contractors put on to win a bid. And I knew full well that they could never deliver on their proposal. I'd voice my opinion to my superiors, but everyone knows low bid wins, and if the outcome is bupkus, the only real loser is the American public.

I have said for years that it is shear luck that the whole shebang hasn't gone down the chute. And I feel our luck is about to run out.

If it's running on Microsoft, it's hackable.

I trained with some civilian contractors in Win2003 who work at CENTCOM in Tampa who were performing a database conversion and restructuring.

No matter the security, it can be hacked. Where the trouble begins is the ability to look at desktop pc's rather than just the servers behind a more secure firewall. Very sensitive information is kept on a persons pc and often not as secure as on a intranet with a server farm.

With the Russian excercise, a poor rice harvest, the need for oil and the need to come into its own, this is all troubling news.

Troubling how so? Troubling as in, "oh well, what are you going to do?" Or is it troubling as in, "WWIII is about to break out?" And do you have any more info on this supposed poor rice harvest and the effects that it has in both China as well as on the trade market?

Troubling not to me but to the region itself, and for China. I. for one, do not want to go to war with China and see no reason. However, growing nations have the tendency to think only for themselves, such as the US.

Security is engaged in an evolutionary arms race not unlike the sort you see in nature. Competing species adapt specialized attributes to defeat their foe, in this case, the competing creatures are hackers and security contractors.

As has been said, the private guys get paid better, this is a factor. Also, many hackers are in it for other reasons besides money, for some money doesn't even enter into it. Then there's the fact that no security is ironclad. If a thief can earn enough from the score, he can afford to invest substantial resources into buffing his techniques and tools in prep. for the job.

It's a cat and mouse game, in truth. The mice keep getting faster, and the cat keeps getting deadlier, but neither can claim victory because their opponent is always evolving, adapting, trying new strategies and changing the rules of the game.

This sort of back and forth, responsive warfare is endless, for all intents and purposes. And, the limits of pro-active prevention are acutely felt in the IT security community.

I'd say it's business as usual, but the alarming rise in the number of attacks should be an indication of the mouse's latest adaptation. Time for the cat to sharpen its claws and refine its hunting techniques I suppose...

well being the whitehouse and DOD have Israeli telecomunications setup...

And being Clinton even admitted to an INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENT listening and watching everything in the whitehouse.

I dont see why the IT section would be any different.

What does an Israeli Telecommunications setup have to do with anything? Israel = Chinese? I know they do weapons deals, but do they sell backdoors as well?

Not being a systems analyst on the payroll of the DoD, I'm sure I can't speak on the particulars of any of the multitude of attacks. If anyone on ATS is a systems analyst for the DoD, please share with us the character of some of the attacks, assuming of course such sharing won't get you shot or suicided or something.

Till then, the suggestion that Israel is behind the hacks is patently ludicrous.

The intelligence services of the state of Israel are likely doing bad, bad things right now, as we speak. The nation of Israel, and its people, are for the most part, not culpable.

That being said, I don't think the Israeli intelligence services have much to do with the DoD hacking. If someone can show us some hard facts, that would be fantastic. Until then, statements regarding Israel's involvement will be unfounded and prejudiced.

Just because an Israeli company provides services for the Pentagon, doesn't mean the nation of Israel is made up of millions of "Shylock" clones, laughing menacingly while they steal our data.

That's just silly.

There are non-jewish and even *gasp* anti-Jewish international movements and organizations, criminal and otherwise. Doesn't it ever occur to people that "The Jews" have made the perfect scapegoats for thousands of years?

It's entirely possible the rabbit hole goes deeper than the common racist's mind can delve. I've seen alliances on the streets, is there any reason to believe it's any different with the big sharks in the international tank?

Why is it so hard to believe?
Theyve been spying on the US Government since BEFORE clinton.
not just watching and recording but LISTENING.

there's no PROOF its the chinese..
there's no proof its anyone.

But in my opinion, and with all the PREVIOUS mossad caught spying and watching the America's...

Its seems more likely to me that its MOSSAD doing the hacking,
placing clues to implicate the chinese.

War through deception???

I havent heard of any chinese snooping around Nuclear sites in the US...
I havent heard of any chinese spies posing as art students?
hell, i never heard of any chinese dancing and filming the sept11 attacks either.. specially when they had BOX cutters in the friggen van?..

my point?

Your government ( The US ) and the ISraeli Government will both come out SCREAMING chinese involvemnt.

accept once again it will be the israeli's maknig a fool outta the americans...
just like they did sept11.
and the US government took that hook line and sinker!

There's always a bug somewhere waiting to be exploited.

Honestly it is not surprising that our DOD networks are under electronic siege. Such is the nature of today's world, if anything we should be flattered that so many nations consider our networks THE networks to hack for cutting edge tech and next generation solutions. This is not to say we shouldn't fight back with every dirty trick we can. If anything this should be a wake up call for all who read it, it took our ancestors blood, sweat, tears, and a relentless drive to be the best to get us to this point.

However, what does surprise me is the willingness of people to point fingers at their favorite international bogey man and cry foul. Do any of you honestly think we don't do the same thing? Anyone care to place bets on how many walmart china liasions collect a second paycheck from langley? Disraeli summed it up perfectly when he said a nation has no permanent allies only permanent national interests. International politics have never been about fair play or simply human decency, and they never will be. Get Over IT!

As to the Israel and china comments... Of course there are israelis willing to sell the expertise to the highest bidder be it china the US or whoever else, such is the nature of capitalism. And yes they do have a track record of behaving badly in the past as far as selling technology goes. Now onto China, they are a developing nation with a full billion or more mouths to feed and at heart share the same goal we do, to be number 1.

Instead of hasty recriminations and bitter accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct wouldn't our time be better spent in ensuring that we remain the best in the same way we always have? The strength of the US has always been our ability to put more stock in competence than national origin. Instead of treating any nation who seeks to improve their place in the world as the great satan we would be much better off treating this as a challenge to be that much better. People tend to forget that the western world has no Divine mandate to be on top. We got there through being progressive and willing to accept change in the name of progress. If we replace this with righteous indignance at so called upstart nations that "dare" challenge our superiority we will truly deserve the fall we are about to take.

Why is it so hard to believe?
Theyve been spying on the US Government since BEFORE clinton.
not just watching and recording but LISTENING.

Along with every other intelligence service who can get away with it. That's what intelligence services do. We do the same exact thing, does that mean we're to blame for everything, or is it just the Israelis who get pegged?

there's no PROOF its the chinese..

I've seen a couple of articles to suggest differently. Have you information that says otherwise?

But in my opinion, and with all the PREVIOUS mossad caught spying and watching the America's...

By that measuring stick, it could be the KGB. Spies spy, that's what they do. We've got spies too yaknow.

Its seems more likely to me that its MOSSAD doing the hacking,
placing clues to implicate the chinese.

Possible. I still don't see it as probable though, you haven't convinced me yet.

War through deception???

Yeah, that's their motto. If the motto is proof of misdeeds, perhaps the US should invade Japan and conduct a witch hunt for the last remnants of the ninja clans.

I havent heard of any chinese snooping around Nuclear sites in the US...

Wen Ho Lee. That's ONE. Took me like five seconds to find that name, but of course I had to look. Have you looked? Or did you type Israeli into the search engine instead of Chinese?

I havent heard of any chinese spies posing as art students?

Li-li Whuang. That's ONE. Ditto from above.

hell, i never heard of any chinese dancing and filming the sept11 attacks either.. specially when they had BOX cutters in the friggen van?..

Setting aside the box cutters comment, check out this link (but take it with a grain of salt, the Epoch Times is rabidly anti-CCP)

english.epochtimes.com...

accept once again it will be the israeli's maknig a fool outta the americans...
just like they did sept11.
and the US government took that hook line and sinker!

You're entitled to your opinion, but I don't think it's very well rounded.

There's more to fleshing out conspiracy theories than just resorting to that old staple "The Jooooooooooooos did it!"

[edit on 26-8-2005 by WyrdeOne]

Well considering that China has 1.3 billion people and some 94 million internet users I would think that its possible that its just a whole lot of Chinese civilian hackers, its quite possible we have a comparitively smaller percentage of net users compared to say the US but because of the sheer size of our population we probably have alot more net user then you do.

So your just probably being atacked by mostly civilian hackers, though I won't confirm or deny wthat NSS is doing absolutely nothing in America.

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI and the Pentagon are investigating whether Chinese spies have been hacking into U.S. government computer systems, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Officials are trying to determine whether the continuing hacking efforts are sponsored by Beijing or merely involve hackers using Chinese Web sites to mask their origins, they said.

In recent years units in the FBI Cyber-crime Division, established to combat computer intrusions, have seen hundreds of cases in which hackers using Chinese Web sites have compromised unclassified official U.S. networks.

One U.S. government official, who asked not to be identified, said government investigators had been involved for several years in "working this problem."

"You can't just jump on a plane and go to China and start questioning people," another government official said.

The FBI declined to comment because of the sensitive nature of the investigations.

Government officials acknowledge many of the attacked Web sites have been unclassified Defense Department sites.

Several other agencies involved with national security, including the departments of Energy and Homeland Security, also have been targeted, the officials said.

The investigation into the hacking and the debate about the origin were first reported by Federal Computer Week and The Washington Post."

[edit on 26-8-2005 by The Middle Kingdom]

For myself, anybody who hacks in I feel to be doing it as an inside job.

[edit on 26-8-2005 by Guy Kawasaki]