[Infowarrior] - Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack

[Richard Forno]

Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/11/20/pentagon-cyber-siege-unprecedented-attack/


As a result of the cyber attack, the Defense Department has banned the  
use of external hardware devices throughout a vast network of military  
computers.

FOXNews.com

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.

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."

FOX News' Justin Fishel and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.