Pentagon Suffers More

The AP reported this Friday (6-22-07) morning that the Pentagon suffered a cyber-attack on Wednesday that required the shut-down of 1,500 computers. Few details, including what's meant by "computers," considering the range of possibilities, were provided.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is referenced as stating that the Pentagon sees hundreds of attacks a DAY. He went on to say this cyber-attack had no adverse impacts on department operations as employees could still use the Blackberries.

Meanwhile, on another "front," Bill Gertz in Inside the Ring, from Washington Times of the same date reports on new intelligence on China's cyber-warfare capabilities. There is a new assessment of China's ability to attack U.S. and allied defense computers. Already, Chinese-origin cyber-attacks are wide-spread and detected (emphasis added) regularly. Richard Lawless, deputy undersecretary of defense for Asia told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) last week (June 13) about China's strides in cyber-warfare. "They see is as a major component of their asymmetric warfare capability," Lawless said as reported by Gertz.