Hackers hit Sandia

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http://www.gertzfile.com/InsidetheRing.html

By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
March 16, 2001

The U.S. intelligence community is conducting a damage assessment of a
major hacker incident involving Sandia National Laboratory in New
Mexico. "It's big," said an official familiar with the incident. Few
details could be learned, however.

According to U.S. intelligence officials, hackers suspected of having
links to a foreign government successfully broke into Sandia's
computer system and were able to access sensitive classified
information. The incident took place in the past several weeks.

The suspected governments, according to the officials, include Russia,
China, Iraq or North Korea all nations thought to have well-developed
information-warfare capabilities.

"It's an ongoing effort to figure the origin of these kinds of
attacks," said another intelligence official.

Sandia is one of three Energy Department laboratories that are major
targets of foreign intelligence services, according to intelligence
reports. Sandia is operated for the department by Lockheed Martin Co.
and builds all non-nuclear components for nuclear weapons, including
high explosives used to trigger nuclear blasts. It also works on
developing nuclear monitoring and has an international center that has
numerous foreign visitors.

In 1999, all classified computers at Sandia and two other Energy
Department laboratories were shut down for a security review aimed at
improving cyber-security.

Spokesmen for Sandia, the CIA and Energy Department declined to
comment on the incident, citing policies of not discussing
intelligence matters.

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