Today’s Washington Post shows how aggressive the Chinese have been in probing US systems and interests. There have been reports in the past that the Chinese have trained North Koreans in advanced hacking techniques. South Korea and the US experienced DDoS attacks last summer that originated in North Korea. There have also been numerous reports about repeated hacks and probes into US government networks with many of them being successful in extracting sensitive information.
Attempting to even the playing field
These state run hackers are fighting on a new front to try to level the “playing field” in the event that a shooting war breaks out. The US has the most technologically advanced military in the world. The thought is that if China, North Korea or another enemy can disrupt US military networks and critical infrastructure systems then it may give them a better chance of fighting against the US.
A flurry of preparation
Last month there were reports that NASA’s IT systems lacked thorough security systems. There is a report from yesterday that the Department of Interior failed a recent cybersecurity audit. Rod Beckstrom quit the US cybersecurity post he had been in for a few months due to political infighting. Obama has yet to name a replacement even though he has promised it is a priority of his. Department of Homeland Security and the NSA are spending huge sums of money to increase their staff and datacenters.
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According to a recent GAO report NASA suffered hundreds of security incidents in 2007 and 2008, including malware infections, data breaches, stolen laptops and bot nets. NASA was affected by more malware than any other federal agency and reported 1,120 security incidents during this two year span. Some of the laptops that were stolen contained unencrypted data for the prototype hypersonic jet (the X-51 scramjet) and test plans related to a space telescope and lunar orbiter. 82 agency computers became part of a Ukraine-based bot net after they were infected with rootkits.
Situation is improved, but gaps in security remain
The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team urged the space agency to implement more effective patching and to better train employees regarding cyber security. Despite the warning NASA still found a number of machines infected with the Coreflood Trojan. It can steal user credentials then communicate with a hostile command and control server. NASA has taken steps to address incident response and improve cyber security practices. The GAO still cites gaps. “”NASA remains vulnerable to similar incidents going forward,” the report finds. “Control vulnerabilities and program shortfalls make it possible for intruders, as well as government and contractor employees, to bypass or disable computer access controls and undertake a wide variety of inappropriate or malicious acts.”
Security should continue to tighten
The GAO made numerous recommendations. NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver agreed with them. “Deficiencies with IT security are often a result of systemic issues in the management of IT,” she said. “To this end, NASA continues to implement improvements in IT management, adhering to [a] previously developed strategy for providing an integrated, secure, and efficient IT environment that supports the NASA mission.”
User awareness key to any effective cyber security program
People need to understand the risks of opening spam attachments or visiting links embedded in spam. Mailprotector’s services help to mitigate these types of events. Our email security services protect users from Trojans, viruses, phishing, and other email-borne malware. Mailprotector is easy – you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to use it.
Happy National Cyber Security Awareness Month!
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