Navy investigating hacker attack, theft

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

Forwarded by: Thomas Roy Garner <trgarner () yta attmil ne jp>

Navy investigating hacker attack, theft
March 2, 2001

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Naval officials are investigating how hackers broke
into a computer at a Navy research facility in Washington and stole
the source codes to a missile guidance program, officials said Friday.

The Navy has been working with the FBI and police forces in Germany
and other unnamed countries since December 24, when officials believe
the break-in occurred. An FBI spokesman downplayed the theft, saying
the software stolen was unclassified.

"We are trying to see who's responsible," said Paul O'Donnell of the
Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "This has led us to several
foreign countries."

O'Donnell said the target was an unclassified computer.

FBI spokesman Chris Murray confirmed that the guidance system source
codes -- the building blocks of a program -- had been stolen. Murray
said that the target computer was at the Naval Research Laboratory in
Washington.

Exigent Software built stolen program

Representatives of Exigent Software Technology, based in Melbourne,
Florida, said Friday that they built the stolen program, called
"OS/COMET." The Air Force has installed OS/COMET, which can also be
used to guide satellites and spacecraft, to a Global Positioning
Satellite system in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to Exigent.

O'Donnell confirmed that Exigent is also a subcontractor for the Navy.

Murray said the software was secret when it was first used in the
1980s, but is now sold commercially. He said the intruder only got
about two-thirds of the source codes.

"It is not the intelligence disaster along the lines of Robert
Hanssen," Murray said, referring to the FBI counterintelligence agent
charged with spying for Russia.

Investigation underway

A spokesman for the German federal office for criminal affairs told
The Associated Press that an investigation is underway there, and is
in the hands of the state prosecutor's office in Kaiserslautern. The
city is the home of several U.S. military installations, including
Ramstein Air Force Base.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen, which first reported news of the
break-in, said that the perpetrator is believed to have used a
computer at Kaiserslautern University in Germany, as well as an
account with Carbonide, a Swedish Internet service provider.

Carbonide chief executive Erik Wickbom told the AP that the company,
based in Stockholm, has cooperated with authorities.

Also Friday, a congressional panel requested that 15 federal
departments and agencies report how they are testing and protecting
their computers from hacking attacks.

The Defense Department was not included in the list.


--
Thomas Roy Garner
Yokota Air Base, Japan
ICQ 4580576

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