Virus hits nearly 75% of systems on U.S. Afghanistan military base

Virus hits nearly 75% of systems on U.S. Afghanistan military base

blogs.zdnet.com

Earlier this month we saw the military ban the use of USB drives and other removable media. Apparently the virus outbreak that lead to this measure affected 75% of all systems at the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan.

Details are still sparse, but both the LA Times and the U.S. News and World Report are reporting that the intrusion was severe enough to raise the INFOCON status, the information security equivalent of the DEFCON alert, and also necessitate the briefing of the president. We also don’t know the source of the attack, but signs point to state rather than non-state actors, with the most popular contenders being either Russia or China.

Our military is dependent upon commodity desktops whose software shares an enormous amount of DNA with systems that sit on every workplace in the planet. These systems form the backbone of what is called network centric warfare. Hopefully the security that the military is planning for these systems is something less than… commodity.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Woah woah woah, 75% of system at the largest base in Afghanistan? All those computers are connected to the Pentagon? This is some serious backlash here, I mean raising DEFCON equivalent levels?

The DEFense readiness CONdition (DEFCON) is a measure of the activation and readiness level of the United States Armed Forces. It describes progressive postures for use between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders of unified commands. DEFCONs are matched to the situations of military severity. Standard peacetime protocol is DEFCON 5, descending in increasingly severe situations. DEFCON 1 represents expectation of actual imminent attack, and is not known to have ever been declared.

DEFCON 5
This is the condition used to designate normal peacetime military readiness. An upgrade in military preparedness is typically made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and announced by the United States Secretary of Defense.

DEFCON 4
This refers to normal, increased intelligence and the heightening of national security measures.

DEFCON 3
This refers to an increase to force readiness above normal. Radio call signs used by American forces change to currently classified call signs.

DEFCON 2
This refers to a further increase in force readiness just below maximum readiness. The most notable time it was declared was during the Cuban Missile Crisis, although the declaration was limited to Strategic Air Command. It is not certain how many times this level of readiness has been reached.

DEFCON 1
This refers to maximum readiness. It is not certain whether this has ever been used, but it is reserved for imminent or ongoing attack on US military forces or US territory by a foreign military power.

en.wikipedia.org...

Cold War

The highest alert condition the US military has been confirmed to have been at was DEFCON 2. During the Cuban Missile Crisis on 22 October 1962, the US Armed Forces were ordered to DEFCON 3. On October 23, Strategic Air Command (SAC) was ordered to DEFCON 2, while the rest of the US military remained at DEFCON 3. SAC remained at DEFCON 2 until 15 November.

For much of the Cold War, US ICBM sites were at DEFCON 4 rather than 5.

Yom Kippur War

Higher alert conditions were also ordered during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. While the US military was technically at DEFCON 3 status during the Yom Kippur War, in certain theaters it operated under DEFCON 2 conditions as a show-of-force to repel Soviet naval vessels from entering the Bosporus Strait.

September 11th Attacks

The third time the United States reached DEFCON 3 was during the September 11, 2001 attacks.

I still wonder why they would put military computers

blogs.zdnet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 11/30/2008 by die_another_day]

[edit on 11/30/2008 by die_another_day]

Originally posted by die_another_day


Woah woah woah, 75% of the U.S. bases in Afghanistan?

From the quote you linked:

75% of all systems at the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan

75% of one base. Still not a good thing but not 75% of all US computers in Afghanistan.

I think it is interesting that they are blaming this on Russia or China. The first thing I thought of was some horny soldier had some porn video with a virus attached to it. He shared it with all of his buddies and it spread throughout the base.

Who know's where it came from though. Interesting to think about.

Originally posted by die_another_day
This is some serious backlash here, I mean raising DEFCON levels?

They didn't raise DEFCON to a higher level. They raised INFOCON, the information equivalent of the defense readiness alert system.

News and World Report are reporting that the intrusion was severe enough to raise the INFOCON status, the information security equivalent of the DEFCON alert,...

Just clarifying what's mentioned in the article.

[edit on 30-11-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

reply to post by Karlhungis


# i was reading this from another forum.

Sorry guys.



[edit on 11/30/2008 by die_another_day]

What Virus?
Wtf you talking about?

I wonder if it's the one my friend found on his USB drive.

It was nasty and nearly impossible to eliminate so much so my friend kept the infected USB drive.

Basically by plugging in the drive you could infect the computer system didn't need to open anything. Looked like it was activated when windows recognized the drive.

We tested it several times on clean systems and every time the system was infected and it spread unbelievably fast.

We were told it actually infects a portion of the drive that even when formatted that portion of the drive isn't some kind of hidden exe file on all drives including USB. Now I never heard of this file before which surprised me but really didn't want to keep infecting clean drives.

We never were able to get the virus off the infected drives with anti-virus software and he said to me, "Man could you imagine if this got into some govt. computer system, they'd be F'ed"

As soon as it said flash drive I thought "oh man, no way"

Yo and without your dribble.
Can we know about the said virus yet?
Because id like to know about said Virus.
Any information would be nice thanks.



..............................................................................
[edit: removed unnecessary quote of entire previous post]
Quoting - Please review this link

[edit on 30-11-2008 by 12m8keall2c]

reply to post by CaptainCaveMan


Read the flippin' article already. Geesh.

The ZD Net article links directly to an L.A. Times piece that identifies the invasive software as "agent.btz".

Here's another link from Urbansurvival.com that says the news is headlines coming out of China

Here's a snippet and you can read more at the above link.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cyber hackers have launched a series of "malware" attacks on U.S. combat zone computers and the U.S. Central Command overseeing Iraq and Afghanistan, under scoring concerns about computer warfare, it was reported on Friday.

The attacks prompted senior military leaders to take the exceptional step of briefing President George W. Bush this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Such attacks may have originated in Russia -- an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security, the paper noted.

I can just imagine the President being briefed because they found a worm which spread it's way across a major computer network, and found that it originated from china.

But calm down Mr Bush, just go to your account panel at the Warcraft site and change your password, those damn Chinese gold farmers wont be haxing your account dagnabit.

Originally posted by redmage
reply to post by CaptainCaveMan

 

The ZD Net article links directly to an L.A. Times piece that identifies the invasive software as "agent.btz".

It must've been a slow day at the (oval) office

This constitutes an extremely high tech attack on the American Military, I demand full rice sanctions against china.

[edit on 30-11-2008 by unnamedninja]

That's what they get for using Windows.

People never learn.....