Cybersecurity Ringing Alarm BellsMarch 27, 2009

 

Attacks on U.S. Defense computers are rising sharply in scope and sophistication and yet the federal response has been feeble and uncoordinated at best, according to security experts.

But even as the number of attacks continue to grow since 2007, the response has been nothing like the one President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Security experts contend that the politicians who can press for a concerted effort have not grasped the severity of the situation.

Nonetheless, there is a growing chorus of private and public security experts pressing the issue to raise awareness of the dangers of cyber-attacks.

When most people think of cyber-attacks, they envision blatant hacks using digital viruses and worms to disable or corrupt systems. And certainly such attacks cause havoc as the French experienced earlier this year when their fighter-jets were grounded after they became infected with the "Conficker" virus spreading across Microsoft Windows-based systems.

But more insidious are the attacks that infiltrate systems to steal cutting edge research and designs for the technology that give America a strategic advantage economically and militarily. Hackers have penetrated the computer networks of two of America's most advanced science labs, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In the case of the ORNL, investigators found that the hackers had stolen the names and social security numbers of all the scientists who had visited the lab. That may have been a ploy, however, to mask the real goal of accessing more critical information.

A white paper in the Wharton Aerospace & Defense Report examines the implications of cyber-attacks on the defense industry.