A decade after Russia hacked the Pentagon, Trump unshackles Cyber Command

[InfoSec News via ISN <isn () lists infosecnews org>]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/29/a-decade-after-russia-hacked-the-pentagon-trump-unshackles-cyber-command-961103

By Martin Matishak
Politico
11/29/2018

It began with an infected USB flash drive.

In the fall of 2008, a U.S. service member stationed at a DoD facility in 
Afghanistan inserted the thumb drive, which Pentagon officials believe 
Russian spies infected with malicious code, into a laptop. Without even 
knowing it, the simple, ordinary action let Moscow infiltrate SIPRNet, the 
Pentagon's secret internal network, in one of the most devastating 
military security compromises in U.S. history.

It would take the Pentagon roughly 14 months to scrub the worm, dubbed 
agent.btz, from its systems in an operation the military called "Buckshot 
Yankee."

A decade ago, the U.S. military was just beginning to confront the risk of 
digital espionage and cyber warfare. But the malware infection 
crystallized for DoD leaders that battling these threats required a 
fundamental change to how the military maneuvered in the digital domain -- 
a U.S. Cyber Command.

In November 2008, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a crucial change in 
Pentagon structure that would set the stage for the digital warfare unit. 
He put network defense under the control of NSA Director Keith Alexander 
with the intent of eventually setting up a four-star command that would 
bring it all together. Until then, the NSA helped coordinate offensive and 
intelligence gathering operations, while digital defenses were left to 
subordinate unit within U.S. Strategic Command.

[...]



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