British military hit with cyberattacks

The British Ministry of Defence is currently coping with a cyberattack
that has managed to redirect e-mails from multiple Royal Air Force
facilities to computers inside Russia, according to a report from
Military.com's DefenseTech blog. The attack, which took the form of an
e-mail worm, is reported to have driven MOD officials to shut down all
e-mail for a period earlier this week.

The attack comes on the heels of a malware attack on the U.S. Department
of Defense's networks late last year, as reported here. That attack led
to the temporary ban on removable media such as USB "thumb drives,"
which were an alleged culprit in the attacks.

A spokesman for Joint Task Force Global Network Operations said that
current policy is to require the certification of all storage devices
prior to being attached to systems connected to the Global Information
Grid.

While there's been no attribution for these attacks, they are part of an
escalating cyber war being waged over the Internet, including Russian
"hacktivist" attacks on Estonia and Georgia over the past two years.
Hacktivists - politically motivated hackers who may or may not have a
state affiliation, but are responding to a particular event - are a
growing threat, according to Mark Hall, director of information
assurance policy and strategy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary
of Defense.

Hall spoke about hacktivists in a presentation at the MILCOM conference
in November. "The hacktivist threat is real," he said. "A nation can
influence their activity while also denying culpability. We haven't seen
any sort of restraint in these communities to keep them from carrying
out these attacks."

Posted by Sean Gallagher on Jan 22, 2009 at 1:31 PM

http://defensesystems.com/blogs/forward-observer/2009/01/british-military-hit-by-cyber-attacks.aspx?s=ds_280109


.

Relevant Pages

  • [Full-disclosure] hackers are giving up hacking
    ... office 9 to 5 hackers but from government as a political tool attack ... threat that is incoming and its from russia. ... the matter is over with and russia "could" be planning cyber attacks ... hackers belonging to governments come out to play and attack the west? ...
    (Full-Disclosure)
  • Re: Boom Town: My Opinion
    ... >civilians are not provocation enough for you? ... attack was that they opposed British and Spanish military involvement ... >Russia would have fought that war if the pipeline from Baku to Russia ... Chechens have always taken advantage of temporary Russian weakness to ...
    (rec.arts.drwho)
  • Re: tragic events of January 13, 1991
    ... >> So you are saying that since St. Petersburg is vital for trade with the ... Russia must therefore defend it from attack by the West. ... > Union Finland functioned as a battle ground and conduit strategically ...
    (soc.culture.baltics)
  • Re: Neo-cons dream of global dominance
    ... This tiny country pulling fingers/ attacking an ex-super power, Russia. ... Georgia wouldn't do it unless the US or NATO instigate them. ... to attack South Ossetia. ... the 21st century nations don't invade other nations." ...
    (alt.machines.cnc)
  • Re: Putins gambit
    ... given that the attack was carried out by an organization ... given that more than half of the Chechen nation has ... been living in Russia as refugees, I would question the claim that Russia ... Chechens but knows no home or headquarters are used as a pretext for the ...
    (soc.culture.baltics)
Quantcast