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According to the Washington Post, a top Defense Department official is
speaking publicly a successful, high-profile infiltration of a computer network
belonging to the US military’s Central Command.

alt="security Manual - Sarbanes-Oxley" vspace=3 align=right
src="http://www.it-toolkits.com/images/Securitymanual.gif"
longDesc="security Manual Template - Sarbanes-Oxley">Deputy Defense
Secretary William J. Lynn III describes the attack in an article to be published
today in Foreign Affairs. The incident occurred in 2008 at a post in the middle
east and was performed by means of a USB flash drive which
installed malware. “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,” according to
Lynn. In 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing anonymous Defense
officials, that the incursion might have originated in Russia.

“Operation Buckshot Yankee,” which countered the attack, was a turning point
for military computer
security. Part of the response was a temporary ban on the use of flash
drives in military computers. That ban has since been modified. The broad
outlines of the attack have been reported over time, but the details had
heretofore been kept secret.

The Post suggests that Lynn’s article is aimed in part at raising awareness
of the problem and of DoD’s actions in response, particularly “active defense”
which seeks out intruders on the network. It is also an exercise in public
lobbying for DoD to have a role in national cyberdefense. Current legislative
proposals generally give the Department of Homeland security primary
responsibility.

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