__________________________________________
zы(C) Matthew Campbell, The Sunday Times
(R) Maks Feodorov
__________________________________________
Russian hackers
US military secrets are stolen
Officials in Washington are convinced
that Russia managed to steal some of the
the most sensitive military
US secrets, including data on
strategic guidance systems
whose weapons and secret codes
maritime intelligence regulations in
within a massive and carefully
planned hacker-spy-
what shares do the American ones have?
counterintelligence officers received code-
second name: operation "Labyrinth of the Lunar
light"(operation Moonlight Maze). Reconnaissance-
military action, which may have caused
America suffers significantly more damage than everyone else
the intrigues of Chinese spies in Silicon
valley, lasted about six months. She wasso well thought out and carefully
coordinated that experts in the field
computer security, trying to find
These are effective ways to counteract Russian
the hacker threat, they believe that the American
ka can lose her first cyber war
well. Investigators leading this case suspect
they are roaring that behind the series that began in January
computer attacks on the American military
systems are based on Russian intelligence services. B
In one case, a computer technician, torturing
trying to calculate the burglar's return address,
penetrated his system, with amazement he saw
files, like a secret document from a database
The US Navy was "withdrawn" to Moscow directly from
his nose. American experts have long been pre-
were warned about the possibility of "computer
Pearl Harbor", during which the potential
a strong enemy will be able to take advantage of heavy
Why is America dependent on computing?
technology - be it to steal secrets from
defense networks or to disrupt the pa-
bots of critical life support systems
USA. It is noted that a cyber attack in this
in a sense, it is not inferior in efficiency to nuclear
to a new blow. At the secret briefing, the deputy
US Secretary of Defense John Hamry application
said to a member of the Congress Committee: "We find-
is in the midst of a cyber war."during the same
the hacker operation itself targets the attackers
along with American military facilities
became private research institutes
and companies developing advanced technologies.
These structures, naturally, are in no hurry to
disclose information about the damage that they
suffered as a result of hacker attacks, one
However, experts estimate it at hundreds of millions.
new US dollars. "We no longer have
things with unruly teenagers, - say-
hall the White House representative, hinting at
previous cases in which the participants ha-
Ker attacks were schoolchildren - alone -
ki. - It is impossible to overestimate the seriousness
this problem. The President is very concerned about her
chen". The first hacker attacks were recorded
were made at the beginning of this year, when
cialists have identified a new and frighteningly effective
effective way to hack American companies
computer networks. Within a few days
hackers operating from overseas "check-
looked at the strength of the military computer
network in the vicinity of San Antonio (Te-
hass). Dozens of attacks followed
to other military facilities in the territory
USA, including the Pentagon's local networkWashington. When did they start after that?
receive messages about hacking via Internet
no servers for research laboratories
piy, experts realized that the half-
valuable cyber war. "We have identified a series
deliberate and carefully coordinated
attacks against our defense networks, and
all these attacks originated from computers
of one state, - says Curt Weldon,
Chairman of the Congressional Military Committee
research and development. - There is no such thing
when it wasn't there before. It turned out to be very
serious and very scary." Hacking
even key computer systems were turned down
we, specializing in the development of systems
computer security topics. Computer
engineer Ron Broersma, working in
command point of space and sea equipment
ron systems in San Diego (California) in
department developing ciphers for exchangeintelligence reports, discovered
hacker attack on your network when
he began to experience unexpected and
clear difficulties with printing documents.
To his amazement Broersma saw that
the printer's print buffer, the document has been rescheduled
lan on a computer to Moscow, from where then
its copy returned. "For us, this is ok-
there is a really difficult problem", -
an engineer told at a private seminar about
which took place in June. It is not entirely clear what in-
formation was contained in the stolen document
those In addition to work to ensure maritime
code intelligence, center in San Diego
attacks computer security systems
for the US Navy and some government
services It is assumed that several epi-
challenges for hackers to penetrate this network
center went unnoticed. Oleg Kalu-
gin,former head of the Soviet counter-
intelligence, now living in the state of Mary
land, said that such centers are
priority targets for the Russian
intelligence. He stated that FAPSI (formerly a sub-
division of the KGB, now specializing in
electronic listening) probably ex-
exploitsInternet for spying in America
ke. "They know how to do it well", - say
hall he. High-precision American technology
gies, including missile guidance systems, pre-
are of particular interest to such countries
like Russia, where, due to economic problems,
there is a chronic shortage of
funds for the development of new military technologies
logiy. "Russia copes brilliantly with external
technologies, but has no money for them
development, - says Kalugin. - So,
developments are easier to steal than financial
pow". Computer attacks have given new
pulse according to the measures provided for in
Presidential Directive Clinton on the protection
US electronic infrastructure. Alarm-
married to the threat "Labyrinth of Moonlight",
The US President requested additional
$600 million for financing
series of defense initiatives, including the creation
creation of an infrastructure protection centerwith the FBI
to develop a system for repelling hacker attacks
attacks. Clinton ordered the military to develop
own computer attack systems
nia. However,Weldon,who calls
symmetry from computer systems "Achilles"
one-fifth of all developed nations," said
that this is clearly not enough. He performs
for the creation of a computer defense service
directly in the Pentagon under direct
management of the highest military command.
According to other experts, America was
so preoccupied lately
solution to the Year 2000 Problem, which both the military and the na-
scientific and commercial structures were neglected
whether you care about protecting your systems from hackers
sky hacks. But at the same time on its own
"shuffle" megabytes of computer code
towards January 2000 itself will increase
poses the risk of unauthorized access to
rewritten systems. Alarmed
leakage of military documents to Russia, high
Our American officials say that in
in the future the country must prepare for others,
no less dangerous forms of information
wars that, theoretically, could be
bring America to its knees. China, Libya and
Iraq is developing information means
war. According to one high-ranking
official of the White House, "from some
which are abundantly fundedterrorist
Some groups also have such means."
A series of war games conducted by experts
last year, proved that it is the largest
the superpower of the world may be on the mi-
lost by a bunch of stubborn computer hackers,
capable of paralyzing airports, markets and
military systems with a few keystrokes
Vish on a laptop computer. Suspicions
that Russia is to blame for the attacks is sometimes
they are based on tracing the path of the
received documents to Moscow. However, ek-
sperts warn that evidence
Russian participation in this operation is not obligatory.
This clearly means that the Kremlin is involved in it.
"It may turn out that the Russians are to blame for the attacks
Siysk organized crime groups, - says one expert. - A
maybe organized crime groups perform a cover function
tia for intelligence services." Notes -
It is clear that it is the Russians who stand for
signing of an international treaty on under-
starting an information war. "We can't
allow the emergence of fundamentally new
however area of the internationalresisting-
niy", - said the former Russian minister
Foreign Affairs Sergei Ivanov in a letter To
fi Annan, UN Secretary General, in October 1998
yes. Subsequently, Russian - American
relations have reached an extreme degree of cooling
denies in connection with NATO actions in Yugoslavia
vii. US relations with China have also deteriorated.
For these countries, a cyber attack against America
Kan targets may be the only one
in a different way to “fight back” at NATO, without getting involved
going to war with shooting.
With best wishes®ards
Maks
------------------------------------------
Share your thoughts about the article