Re: Data on U.S. military's Iraqi operations leaked onto Internet

["Daniel H. Renner" <dan () losangelescomputerhelp com>]

Is this any surprise considering the U.S. military is running Windows 
based MS Office applications, making it easier for personal computers 
doing the same to move data back and forth when connecting to internal 
military networks during the day, then the Internet at night?

During WWII only the radioman had direct communications to Central Ops, 
and he handled ALL communications in and out of his filed unit.  Now 
with computers everywhere, I imagine the communication system of the 
U.S. military is a freakin' mess with little hope for organization, much 
less security.


Sincerely,

Daniel H. Renner
President
Los Angeles Computerhelp
A division of Computerhelp, Inc.
818-352-8700
http://losangelescomputerhelp.com



"Richard M. Smith" wrote:
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:17:52 -0500
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
Subject: [funsec] Data on U.S. military's Iraqi operations leaked onto
        Internet
To: <funsec () linuxbox org>
Message-ID: <012001c7148a$5265e3c0$0500a8c0@RMSHP>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/30/D8LNDQ3G0.html

Internal data such as information concerning U.S. military operations in
Iraq <http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=iraq&sid=breitbart.com>  have recently
been leaked to the Internet from a privately owned personal computer of an
Air Self-Defense Force member loaded with a file sharing software, ASDF
investigations have shown.


The information on transport operations and personnel deployment of the U.S.
military in Iraq in June and July was given as confidential data from the
U.S. military and its leak could have posed a serious threat to the safety
of foreign troops operating in Iraq. The ASDF said, "The situation has
changed from the time then and it will therefore have no impact."


An analysis of the hard disk drive that included the information indicated
the data were leaked on Friday, the investigations showed.


The issue was taken up at a parliamentary committee meeting Thursday.
Defense Agency
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22Defense+Agency%22&sid=breitbart.com>
Director General Fumio Kyuma admitted that measures taken so far to stamp
out leaks have been insufficient, saying, "Instructions were issued to
delete official information and the person reported he deleted it but there
were data left."


The Self-Defense Force has been embarrassed by a series of internal data
leaks from privately owned PCs since the fall last year. The latest incident
took place while the SDF was taking measures to stop such leaks.


Agency Vice Minister Takemasa Moriya said rigorous penalties will be served
in the latest case.


The data also include security exercises at an ASDF base in Naha, Okinawa
Prefecture
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22Okinawa+Prefecture%22&sid=breitbart.com>
, the ASDF said.


The ASDF is obtaining such data from U.S. forces because it continues
airlifting goods of multinational forces in Iraq even after Ground
Self-Defense Force members withdrew from Iraq in July.


According to the ASDF, data were leaked from a PC owned by a first
lieutenant
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22first+lieutenant%22&sid=breitbart.com>
who belongs to the Naha base of the ASDF. The officer was stationed in Qatar
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=qatar&sid=breitbart.com>  from March to
August this year. Qatar hosts the U.S. military command for Iraqi
reconstruction assistance operations, according to the Defense Agency.


The first lieutenant took a privately owned notebook PC there and used it in
his official duties without authorization, the agency said.


After returning to Japan, the first lieutenant copied the information in
question to an external hard disk drive, which he hooked up with another
privately owned PC loaded with the file sharing software Winny apparently
infected with a computer virus
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22computer+virus%22&sid=breitbart.com> ,
according to the agency.


The leak drew the attention of Internet users who posted items about the
data on a bulletin board
<http://search.breitbart.com/q?s=%22bulletin+board%22&sid=breitbart.com> ,
which prompted the ASDF to investigate the case.


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