Devastating Military Security Breach Exposed Combat Data

“A foreign intelligence agent in 2008 managed to pull off the
“most significant breach of U.S. military computers” in history by
using a cigarette-lighter-sized portable flash drive to infect
computers used by Central Command to oversee combat activities in
Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a U.S. defense official.

“The breach, unprecedented in both the size and the nature of
information that was then easily transferred to servers in enemy
countries, was first reported by the L.A. Times in November 2008.
But neither the U.S. government’s response to nor the damning scope
of the breach had been widely discussed until an article penned by
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn III confirmed many of
the details this week in the September/October issue of the journal
Foreign Affairs.”

I guess those bad foreign infiltrators don’t follow the
rules, like the USB device ban. And they’re still not saying
“Windows.” The Foreign Affairs article is worth reading, if only
for its missing some seriously obvious points, like “don’t use a
proven malware vector like Windows.” –ed.

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