USA File: Pentagon target of "alarming" cyber attack this week, bans DoD personnel using external hardware; China's PLA launched 2007 network assault

People's Liberation Army Major General Qian Lihua Comments on US-Taiwanese Relations: "We demand the U.S. change its ways."

Fox News revealed yesterday that the Pentagon computer network was the target of an "alarming" cyber attack this week, prompting military brass to ban the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVDs, on all US Department of Defense computers and networks. "The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm," the news source reports, "that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks."
Fox News claims that it obtained a copy of one memo distributed last week to an army division within the Pentagon warning of the cyber attack.

In 2007 the DoD took 1,500 computers offline following a June 20 cyber attack. At the time Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted that such attacks occur on a daily basis. In September of last year the Financial Times reported that Chinese hackers in the employ of the People's Liberation Army were responsible for the June 2007 cyber assault: "The PLA regularly probes US military networks – and the Pentagon is widely assumed to scan Chinese networks – but US officials said the penetration in June raised concerns to a new level because of fears that China had shown it could disrupt systems at critical times."

Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack
Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.

The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.

"We have detected a global virus for which there has been alerts, and we have seen some of this on our networks," a Pentagon official told FOX News. "We are now taking steps to mitigate the virus."

The official could not reveal the source of the attack because that information remains classified.

"Daily there are millions of scans of the GIG, but for security reasons we don't discuss the number of actual intrusions or attempts, or discuss specific measures commanders in the field may be taking to protect and defend our networks," the department said in an official statement.

Military computers are often referred to as part of the Global Information Grid, or GIG, a system composed of 17 million computers, many of which house classified or sensitive information.

FOX News obtained a copy of one memo sent out last week to an Army division within the Pentagon warning of the cyber attack.

"Due to the presence of commercial malware, CDR USSTRATCOM has banned the use of removable media (thumb drives, CDRs/DVDRs, floppy disks) on all DoD networks and computers effective immediately."

While these incidents may be simple probes, it can and should be expected by all "preppers" that one day the Moscow-Beijing Axis will launch a massive cyber attack against NATO computer networks only hours prior to a military assault. As we previously reported, the security of the Western Alliance's information systems was greatly compromised in recent months through the treason of Estonian defense ministry official Herman Simm, recruited by the Soviets in the late 1980s and arrested only in September of this year. In other words, Simm was passing Western military secrets to Moscow for nearly 20 years, with little or no disruption following the so-called collapse of communism.

Not so coincidentally, Bill Gertz reported yesterday that: "The Pentagon's military exchange program with China suffered another setback this week when a Chinese general announced that military visits and port calls by ships will not resume until the announced $6.5 billion U.S. arms package to Taiwan is canceled." PLA Major General Qian Lihua, director of the Chinese Defense Ministry foreign affairs office, huffed: "We demand the U.S. change its ways, cancel its plans to sell weapons to Taiwan and stop its exchanges with the Taiwanese military. Only if they do so can the [People's Liberation Army] and ministry of national defense resume normal relations with their U.S. counterparts." At the risk of sounding indelicate, may I offer the following advice to Maj. Gen. Qian: "Take a hike, buddy." However, no doubt the faux patriots in Washington DC will fall over themselves to oblige the Red Chinese demand for access to US military installations.