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[infowar.de] Mehr zur Bedrohung durch nationale Akteure
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Ich finde es sympathisch ;-), daß das Defense Science Board (DSB) gerade so
gut Werbung für die FoGIS-Konferenz macht:
"More seriously, 20 countries already have or are developing the ability to mount serious attacks on other countries, the report said."
Gruß
GS
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Defense News, June 25-July 1, 2001, Pg. 1
Virtually Vulnerable
Civilian Board Warns Pentagon Of Gaps in Computer Security
By Frank Tiboni, Washington
The U.S. military cannot defend against a concerted computer attack from a world military power and must spend some $1.4 billion more each year on computer security to safeguard its systems, according to a report by the Defense Science Board (DSB).
The Pentagon?s inadequate computer security defenses against a sophisticated adversary could lead to attacks as serious as "disruption of a major military operation," said the report, prepared by a 46-person task force.
The Pentagon is "betting the farm" on data security measures being built into its new computer network, the report said. The so-called Global Information Grid (GIG) is a web of classified and unclassified computer networks that will deliver data to soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and policy makers.
"Without a considerable effort to provide information assurance, such a complex system will introduce inherent, and perhaps, crippling, vulnerabilities into the military force structure," said the report, "Protecting the Homeland: Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Defensive Information Operations, 2001 Summer Study, Volume II."
The civilian DSB advises the Office of the Secretary of Defense on scientific, technical and manufacturing issues. The board reports to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, a post currently held by Edward "Pete" Aldridge.
The report concluded the Pentagon needs to spend $3 billion a year ? $1.4 billion more than it currently spends ? on computer security technology, training and recruitment to meet future requirements.
This includes $200 million over the next five years to develop policies and products to protect the GIG.
As the military?s future data backbone, and an enabler of the Pentagon?s future-war blueprint, Joint Vision 2020, the network is likely to be targeted by future adversaries seeking asymmetric means to avoid confronting American conventional and nuclear forces, the report says.
The Pentagon uses several computer operating systems and more than 700 software programs, comprising 100 million lines of computer code. Few have been checked for vulnerabilities left by careless, or even malicious, programmers, according to the report.
"The Pentagon is susceptible to external attacks, as well as from the software it uses, which is virtually impossible to be confident about because of vulnerabilities built into its computer code," DSB Chairman William Schneider told Defense News June 20. During the past four years, teams of hackers at the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Md., have conducted 37 assaults on Pentagon computer networks, the report said. These cyber-attacks used computer and telecommunications networks to deliver computer viruses or other commands meant to penetrate, disrupt or destroy communication capabilities. Ninety-nine percent of the attacks went undetected by Pentagon network operators, even though the teams used hacking tools familiar to the operators.
The proliferation of information technologies around the globe is putting sophisticated tools in the hands of private and state-controlled hackers. After the April 1 collision of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter, a cyberskirmish erupted between amateur U.S. and Chinese hackers, who raced to deface private, and official, Web sites.
More seriously, 20 countries already have or are developing the ability to mount serious attacks on other countries, the report said. China already has declared its intention to use cyberattacks as an asymmetric response to any conflict with the United States, the report said.
Meanwhile, the number of unauthorized intrusions has been rising. The Pentagon detected about 30,000 suspicious events on its information networks in 2000, up from 22,000 in 1999 and 6,000 in 1998, the report said.
In 2001, the Pentagon expects about 25,000 to 30,000 events, Army Maj. Gen. David Bryan, commander of the Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations, told Defense News June 22.
Bryan oversees the protection of Pentagon computer systems, as well as U.S. offensive computer warfare efforts.
To counter the increased threat, Bryan said he needs the continued support of the National Security Agency?s Red Team, which pinpoints vulnerabilities in the Pentagon?s computer networks. He said he also needs increased funding to develop intrusion detection software that immediately tells Pentagon computer network operators the origin of the hacking.
U.S. Space Command, Colorado Springs, Colo., which oversees the Pentagon?s computer security efforts, has increased the Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations? budget from $3 million in 2000 to $9 million in 2001, and it will increase to $18 million in 2002, Bryan said.
A technology industry group official echoed Bryan?s call for better tracing techniques.
"The Pentagon needs more advanced technologies that trace hackers and that track their trends," Dan Heinemeier, president of the Government Electronics & Information Technology Association, Arlington, Va., told Defense News June 21.
"We don?t argue with the Defense Science Board report," he said. "Do we have vulnerabilities? Yes. But are we dramatically better than a year ago? Yes."
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