14 DAY TRIAL // The Pentagon has revealed that back in March it suffered a major security breach in which tens of thousands of sensitive files were stolen.
The admission came from Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn in a speech about the Department of Defense's cyber strategy at the National Defense University in Washington.
"It is a significant concern that over the past decade, terabytes of data have been extracted by foreign intruders from corporate networks of defense companies. In a single intrusion this March, 24,000 files were taken," Lynn said.
The intrusion is one of the largest cyber attacks against the Pentagon that have ever been disclosed. The deputy defense secretary didn't go into the details, but told journalists that a foreign nation was most likely responsible.
The perpetrators of such attacks are usually interested in information about secret technologies. "When looking across the intrusions of the last few years, some of the stolen data is mundane, like the specifications for small parts of tanks, airplanes, and submarines.
"But a great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols," Lynn said.
The Department of Defense takes such hostile actions very seriously and has put measures in place to prevent them. Lynn reiterated that USA reserves the right to respond to serious cyber attacks with military action at a time and place of its choosing. "In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," he stressed.
The number of cyber espionage attacks has increased significantly in the past year, or at least the number of publicly reported ones. It's not only the US that is targeted, but also the UK, Canada, the European Union and other western powers.
The primary suspect is China, mostly because the IPs used in most attacks are traced back to the country. However, Beijing has repeatedly denied these accusations and claims that it is a victim like everybody else.