[infowar.de] US-Fluglotsensysteme angeblich sicher vor Hackern

[Ralf Bendrath <bendrath -! - zedat - fu-berlin - de>]

Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA): "Following September 11, Osama bin Laden
reportedly spoke of attacking U.S. computers."
Wer hat das denn bloß berichtet? Oder haben wir da etwas übersehen?
RB

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24166.html

US Air traffic safe from hackers - FAA 
By Kevin Poulsen 
The Register, 22.2.2002

Computer security weaknesses in the U.S. air traffic control network
that have dogged the Federal Aviation Administration since 1998 have
been substantially closed, the FAA's CIO said Thursday, but the agency
needs more funding to continue the effort. 

"I think we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of years," said
Daniel Mehan, speaking on a panel at the RSA Conference in San Jose,
Calif. "I think, for example, it is safe to fly... But we can not
continue it without getting substantial aid from the administration and
Congress." 

The FAA was criticized in a September, 2000, GAO report for not
performing background checks on IT contractors, failing to install
intrusion detection systems, and not performing adequate risk
assessments and penetration tests on agency systems. It was the third
time in as many years that the agency had flunked an audit by Congress'
investigative arm. 

"Until FAA addresses the pervasive weaknesses in its computer security
program, its critical information systems will remain at increased risk
of intrusion and attack, and its aviation operations will remain at
risk," the 2000 report concluded. 

Mehan outlined the FAA's current cyber security practices, which include
maintaining redundant systems, seperating administrative networks from
control networks, and using "firebreaks" as a hedge against viruses and
worms that might get into an internal network. "At FAA we believe in
layers of protection," said Mehan. "So you contain any attack in certain
parts, and then use redundancy as a backup." 

The FAA update offered a grounded moment in a panel that brought
together five lawmakers and government officials to ponder a question
that could have been ripped from a supermarket tabloid: "Which is the
greatest threat to our well-being: intercontinental nuclear missiles or
cyber terrorism?" 

That question went unanswered, but some on the panel seemed to favor the
latter. 

"Certainly intercontinental missiles are an issue," said Rep. Mike Honda
(D-CA). "But I think that we have infrastructure ways to protect
ourselves... Whereas cyber terrorism, I question how much knowledge and
protection we have." 

"Clearly, the threat is real," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA). "Following
September 11, Osama bin Laden reportedly spoke of attacking U.S.
computers." 

The session continued the theme struck by the conference's opening
keynote Tuesday, when White House cyber security czar Richard Clarke
urged industry to spend more money on information security, lest
America's enemies launch devastating cyber attacks on the electric power
grid, telecommunications networks and air traffic control systems -- all
of which he said relied on the Internet. 

Panelists unanimously expressed support for the White House's belief in
terrorist hackers, though Mehan -- perhaps unwittingly -- contradicted
one of Clarke's assertions. "Our air traffic does not use the Internet,"
he said.

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