- ``A good percentage of the incidents
we see all the time involve DOD, because DOD is such a prime target for
even individual hackers who want to test their skills. They see the Department
of Defense as the big banana, the final exam, the ultimate challenge to
test their skills,''
-
-
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of a new U.S. cyber law enforcement agency
told a Senate panel Wednesday that a ``half dozen'' substantial attacks
had been launched since February against U.S. government computer systems.
Michael Vatis, the chief of the National Infrastructure Protection Center
(NIPC) of the FBI, refused to elaborate, saying pending investigations
prevented him. But Vatis did respond to lawmakers when asked how many of
the computer attacks he had witnessed since February -- when the NIPC was
created -- were considered ``substantial'' and separate from routine computer
``hacker'' attacks. ``I would say somewhere in the vicinity of a half dozen
of what I would consider substantial, ones that we are still investigating
to determine in fact whether they are significant or whether they're really
part of the noise that exists almost everyday,'' Vatis told the Senate
Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information.
The Senate subcommittee met to hear from administration officials about
the latest steps to counter attacks on critical U.S. computer infrastructure.
-
- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the
ranking Democrat on the panel, asked Vatis if the half dozen or so substantial
attacks involved military computers at the Department of Defense (DOD).
Vatis would not respond directly, citing the probes, but stressed that
DOD was always a target. ``A good percentage of the incidents we see all
the time involve DOD, because DOD is such a prime target for even individual
hackers who want to test their skills. They see the Department of Defense
as the big banana, the final exam, the ultimate challenge to test their
skills,'' Vatis said. Senators were also briefed on last year's DOD exercise,
code-named ``Eligible Receiver,'' which exposed U.S. vulnerabilities to
cyber attack.
-
- The NIPC was formed in response to concerns
about the safety of national computer systems and charged to detect, deter,
warn, respond to and investigate unlawful acts involving intrusions and
other threats against vital infrastructures. Arizona Republican Sen. Jon
Kyl, the subcommittee chairman, said the U.S. should gird for a cyber attack
against military computers with the same urgency as the military prepared
for more traditional physical attacks.
-
- ``Today, because of the networked nature
of our critical infrastructures our enemies needn't risk attacking our
strong military if they can much more easily attack our soft digital underbelly,''
Kyl said. President Clinton May 22 signed two directives designed to strengthen
defenses against terrorism and other unconventional threats, and formed
working groups of public and private groups to work on a coordinated strategy.
Administration studies showed that an attack by a foreign government or
group, or domestic terrorists, could not only harm military operations
but disrupt banking and finance, create power outages, interrupt transportation
nodes and crash entire communications networks.
-
- Vatis said some of the immediate issues
under discussion were efforts to determine budget requirements, create
an attack detection and warning system, determine legal authority and legislative
reqand devise a cohesive intelligence collection process. In late February,
the Pentagon and FBI investigated a series of successful efforts by computer
``hackers'' to obtain information from military computers. The break-ins
came at the same time U.S. forces were being marshaled for a possible attack
on Iraq.
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