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DOD network attacks level off
From: William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 01:04:45 -0600
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1204/web-afcea-12-08-00.asp BY Bill Murray 12/08/2000 The number of detected attacks on unclassified Defense Department networks has leveled off this year, according to the commander whos in charge of protecting them. The number of detected "cyber events" on DODs Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network increased dramatically from 780 in calendar year 1997 to 22,144 in 1999, said Army Maj. Gen. James Bryan, director of the Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense. But the number of cyber events has steadied: from January through October of this year, there were 20,414, he said. Bryan spoke Tuesday at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Associations TechNet Asia-Pacific 2000 conference in Honolulu. "Were better at detecting what level of activities there are," on DOD networks, Bryan said. JTF-CND officials use "strict definitions" to define a cyber event, and each event has to fulfill the requirements of seven categories, he said. The importance of having common criteria for what constitutes a cyber event came up earlier on Tuesday, when Lt. Gen. Edwin Smith, commanding general for U.S. Army Pacific, said there are 800,000 "hits" each week on his networks from hackers. "And theyre not all high school hackers," he added. Ninety-seven percent of the time, intrusions into DOD systems could have been prevented with better systems configurations, Bryan said. To address that problem, the DOD CIO Executive Board is expected to sign a directive for ports and protocol configuration control by the end of the month, he said. JTF-CND also has developed a single database covering all DOD organizations cyber events, Bryan said. Like his predecessor at JTF-CND, Air Force Maj. Gen. John Campbell, he expressed frustration that the organization cant do reconnaissance on cyber intruders who arent in .mil domains. *==============================================================* "Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ================================================================ C4I.org - Computer Security, & Intelligence - http://www.c4i.org *==============================================================* ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email LISTSERV () SecurityFocus com with a message body of "SIGNOFF ISN".
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- DOD network attacks level off William Knowles (Dec 11)