US defence department under cyber-attack

But non-email-using defence secretary not inconvenienced.

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
Published: 07:45 GMT, 22 June 07

The US Department of Defense took an estimated 1,500 computers offline on Wednesday following a security breach within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD).

"Elements of the OSD unclassified email system were taken offline yesterday afternoon, due to a detected penetration," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. "A variety of precautionary measures are being taken. We expect the system to be online again very soon."

Department of Defense officials had little more to say about the attack and would not confirm the number of systems that had been taken offline.

The Pentagon is exposed to "perhaps hundreds of attacks a day," and the department has back-up systems in place, Gates said.

"There is no anticipated adverse impact on ongoing operations," he added. "There will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences."

However, it looks like the secretary himself will not be inconvenienced. "I don't do email," he said. "I'm a very low-tech person."

What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 500 characters.

Characters remaining: 500

Add your commentComments

Raymond Ilano | Published: 01:08 GMT, 25 June 2007

I'm sure this is nothing new to the government as they are under constant attack. Professional hackers in other countries are hammering away at federal resources and I'm sure they have plenty of security measures in place. One can only hope anyway. Just my .75 cents :)

Related Security news

Microsoft denies building security 'backdoor' in Windows 7

Privacy organisations shouldn't read too much into NSA involvement it says

20 November 2009

Pentagon expands exclusive deal with McAfee

Department of Defense uses McAfee products

Police arrest pair over global banking web scam

Man and woman arrested in Manchester for using notorious Zeus Trojan

Security star Fortinet sets price for IPO

Investors still have taste for tech.

Related Security reviews

Lumension application control review

Bit9 Parity Suite

BitDefender Total Security 2008

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Techworld White Papers

Database security: Preventing enterprise data leaks at the source

IDC discusses the growing internal threats to business information, the impact of government regulations on the protection of data, and how enterprises must adopt database security best practices...

Download Whitepaper

Service-oriented security

SOA has become an integral part of enterprise software by providing a framework to efficiently develop software as services that is easily sharable, reusable, and integrated. No where is the need more apparent than in the Identity Management space. Welcome to the age of Service-Oriented Security (SOS).

Download Whitepaper

Data protection prospective vendor checklist

Organisations need a way to map business needs against all these challenges in procuring a technical solution. To help, SANS has developed the following Prospective Vendor Checklist.

Download Whitepaper

Unlock the power of the mainframe

This whitepaper presents the notion of CICS as an integration hub based on a component-based, service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. Highlights will review the challenges and contrasted support for Web services natively in CICS.

Download Whitepaper

Techworld UK - Technology - Business

COLT White Paper

Are all VoIP services the same?

Questions to ask your service provider to ensure you get the VoIP service you need
With careful choice of partner, your business can have all the advantages of VoIP access - reduced costs, flexibility and simplicity - without the drawbacks.
This white paper is your guide to ensure you get right the VoIP service and details the pitfalls which businesses would do well to avoid.

Download white paper
BMC

Ride the express lane in the journey to speed ITIL adoption

Explore the challenges in making the journey to ITIL and the criteria for selecting consulting services
By following ITIL practices, your IT organisation will become more closely integrated with the business. We recommend making the journey to ITIL in a sequence of six incremental steps, the phases of which are driven through execution of a strategic transformational roadmap.

Download white paper

Webcast: IT Financial Management: Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility.
On Demand Webcast
Join this webcast to learn about the techniques and technologies that can help you prove the value of IT to the business by understanding the true cost of today's IT services and those that will be necessary to deliver future success.

Register Today

Site Map

IDG Network

* *