Cyber Attacks From China Show Computers Insecure, Pentagon Says

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Forum Spin Doctor
Bloomberg.com
August 6, 2008
By Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News
Cyber attacks originating within China have exposed vulnerabilities in U.S. military computer systems that “increase the urgency” for improvements, according to a top Pentagon official.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, in a 70-page request sent to Congress July 11, asked to shift $1.8 billion in approved spending to other programs, including computer security.
“Recent attacks from China on Department of Defense networks and systems increase the urgency to construct cyber systems” that can't be penetrated, England said.
England said the Pentagon must develop its own technology. Building effective, secure systems for military command-and- control and sharing sensitive information between the military services and allies are requirements that “cannot be met with current commercial products,” he said.
Analysts said England's statement is the Pentagon's clearest public admission that its computers have been penetrated by China.
“They have been very reluctant to attribute” the origin of hacker attacks, saying “`we can't be sure it's China.' But in this case, they were clear,” said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the congressionally mandated U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
It's “an admission of subversion” and is significant because it means “an adversary is getting into the system to bring it down, manipulate, change or control it,” Wortzel said.
Pentagon officials last year declined to confirm a Financial Times story based on unnamed sources that China was responsible for a June 2007 attack on the e-mail system of 1,500 workers who support the office of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The Pentagon's latest annual report on China's military stopped short of saying attacks on U.S. military systems originated in China, saying that in 2007 “numerous computer networks, including those owned by the U.S. government, were subject to intrusions that appear to have originated within” China.
England did not identify the source of the attacks, such as the Chinese military or civilian agencies, an analyst said.
“The question is whether we can pinpoint the cyber-attacks as originating” from the government or the army, said Shirley Kan, who analyzes China's military for the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
Tom Ehrhard, a specialist on China's military with the non- partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said England's statement “is the clearest, most unambiguous public statement that suggests -- only hints at, really -- the magnitude and depth of the problem.”
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Wang Baodong, had no immediate comment.
Pentagon spokesman Stewart Upton declined to comment directly on England's request but said “the department has been aware of and responded to malicious cyber activity over the past few years.
“We continue to remain concerned that this activity is growing more sophisticated, more targeted, and more prevalent,” Upton said. “We have seen attempts by a variety of state and non-state sponsored organizations to gain unauthorized access to, or otherwise degrade U.S. information systems.”
 
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