Chinese hackers accessed top secret designs for some of the United States Armed Forces’ most advanced weapons systems, including missile defense technology and the Defense Department’s latest aircraft and ships.
That’s the bad news …
The good news? Our latest aircraft and ships don’t seem to be worth a damn … so it’s not immediately clear what the Chinese are getting for their efforts.
Anyway, according to The Washington Post the hacking was detailed in a previously unreleased section of a January report prepared by the Defense Science Board, a group of military and civilian analysts which advises the Pentagon on various matters.
“The (compromised) designs included those for the advanced Patriot missile system, known as PAC-3; an Army system for shooting down ballistic missiles, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD; and the Navy’s Aegis ballistic-missile defense system,” the Post reported. “Also identified in the report are vital combat aircraft and ships, including the F/A-18 fighter jet, the V-22 Osprey, the Black Hawk helicopter and the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship, which is designed to patrol waters close to shore. Also on the list is the most expensive weapons system ever built — the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is on track to cost about $1.4 trillion.”
Again, as far as the Littoral Combat Ship (a.k.a. the “Little Crappy Ship“) and the F-35 are concerned … China can have these designs.
Hell, they’re paying for them anyway …
Still, it’s depressing that the U.S. President Barack Obama’s Department of Defense can’t do something as simple as safeguard the design integrity of its overbudget, underperforming hardware.
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43 comments
You have to wonder what the government considers the worst part of the leak. My vote would be the missile defense system designs. An enemy that has decent weaponry isn’t as scary to a military superpower as an enemy that can defend itself.
You have to wonder what the government considers the worst part of the leak. My vote would be the missile defense system designs. An enemy that has decent weaponry isn’t as scary to a military superpower as an enemy that can defend itself.
You work for me now, cracker!
You work for me now, cracker!
This is news to anyone?
This is news to anyone?
This is an instance of the mouse being smarter than the trap. It’s going to happen from time to time, and the letter next to the name of the man in the chair is largely irrelevant when it does.
That’s fairly true to a certain extent. There are a variety of ways to attack networks and high profile targets like the US government’s defense secrets receive no small measure of those attacks on a daily basis. No security is perfect, there’s always going to be that one day where someone manages to find the crack in the armor.
When the inevitable failure happens, the important thing is that it is addressed quickly and efficiently so that something like it doesn’t happen again for a long time.
Of course, incompetence and covering up shit is where that defense fails entirely, as with SC’s leaked SSNs scandal. “We don’t need no stinkin’ encryption!”
Hear, hear.
This is an instance of the mouse being smarter than the trap. It’s going to happen from time to time, and the letter next to the name of the man in the chair is largely irrelevant when it does.
That’s fairly true to a certain extent. There are a variety of ways to attack networks and high profile targets like the US government’s defense secrets receive no small measure of those attacks on a daily basis. No security is perfect, there’s always going to be that one day where someone manages to find the crack in the armor.
When the inevitable failure happens, the important thing is that it is addressed quickly and efficiently so that something like it doesn’t happen again for a long time.
Of course, incompetence and covering up shit is where that defense fails entirely, as with SC’s leaked SSNs scandal. “We don’t need no stinkin’ encryption!”
Hear, hear.
It’s depressing that Governor Nikki Haley’s Department of Revenue can’t do something as simple as safeguard MY PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION. For the rest of my life I will have to worry and try to safeguard my financial integrity. It’s like closing the proverbial barn door after the horses are gone.
Amen!!!
I had to join life lock for the rest of my life. I’ve already began to get hits.
Talked, at length, with the Secret Service and there is very little they can do because it is coming from foreign countries!!
Screw Haley!!!!!
It’s depressing that Governor Nikki Haley’s Department of Revenue can’t do something as simple as safeguard MY PERSONAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION. For the rest of my life I will have to worry and try to safeguard my financial integrity. It’s like closing the proverbial barn door after the horses are gone.
Amen!!!
I had to join life lock for the rest of my life. I’ve already began to get hits.
Talked, at length, with the Secret Service and there is very little they can do because it is coming from foreign countries!!
Screw Haley!!!!!
We are in a Cold Technology War and a Hot Religious War. O’s administration refuses to accept the facts. We are vulnerable and getting our asses kicked.
Our Congress and Administration are failing, incompetent and impotent. Focused on partisan back stabbing, denial and gotcha politics.
Our once great country and future generations are going to pay a horrible price.
Future generations will never consider us a GREAT generation.
We are in a Cold Technology War and a Hot Religious War. O’s administration refuses to accept the facts. We are vulnerable and getting our asses kicked.
Our Congress and Administration are failing, incompetent and impotent. Focused on partisan back stabbing, denial and gotcha politics.
Our once great country and future generations are going to pay a horrible price.
Future generations will never consider us a GREAT generation.
If we are paying off the Chinese because they held or are holding our debt, or some other services performed, we should at least have some formalized “receipt.”
Does the national coverage of this “news” hold some leverage or is it a pile on for the start of some confrontation? More theatre…like Clinton and his look the other way while I give out State secrets.
While the Chinese steal our secrets and analyze our capabilities we ignore what they do, cut our defense budget and watch them build their military. They now have one aircraft carrier, are building two more and while there is more to having a carrier battle group than attaining ships they will acquire the know how and experience as we atrophy. We are allowing our strength to diminish and we will pay the price. One must rule the seas and skies to control the land (during a war) and we won’t be able to either shortly.
No problem EJB. Don’t you read FITSNEWS? What foreign countries do is none of our concern. Sic Willie wants to wait til they are on our shores or in our air space before we even think about it.
When it’ll be too late.
Correctamundo!
No problem EJB. Don’t you read FITSNEWS? What foreign countries do is none of our concern. Sic Willie wants to wait til they are on our shores or in our air space before we even think about it.
They have an aircraft carrier. Thy don’t have any pilots who can land on an aircraft carrier. Tricky and hard.
Very true, but four years ago they didn’t have an aircraft carrier and we had eleven, now they have one with two in the pipe and we have nine. Carriers take many years to build, like submarines. If we changed course today we would barely be able to stay ahead.
If we are paying off the Chinese because they held or are holding our debt, or some other services performed, we should at least have some formalized “receipt.”
Does the national coverage of this “news” hold some leverage or is it a pile on for the start of some confrontation? More theatre…like Clinton and his look the other way while I give out State secrets.
While the Chinese steal our secrets and analyze our capabilities we ignore what they do, cut our defense budget and watch them build their military. They now have one aircraft carrier, are building two more and while there is more to having a carrier battle group than attaining ships they will acquire the know how and experience as we atrophy. We are allowing our strength to diminish and we will pay the price. One must rule the seas and skies to control the land (during a war) and we won’t be able to either shortly.
No problem EJB. Don’t you read FITSNEWS? What foreign countries do is none of our concern. Sic Willie wants to wait til they are on our shores or in our air space before we even think about it.
When it’ll be too late.
Correctamundo!
They have an aircraft carrier. Thy don’t have any pilots who can land on an aircraft carrier. Tricky and hard.
Very true, but four years ago they didn’t have an aircraft carrier and we had eleven, now they have one with two in the pipe and we have nine. Carriers take many years to build, like submarines. If we changed course today we would barely be able to stay ahead.
China, the land of state-sponsored theft from hard-working people around the world.
China, the land of state-sponsored theft from hard-working people around the world.
A $100 used laptop with a competent software engineer can pilfer billions, actually trillions of dollars worth of technology information/know how….
Amazing times.
Maybe it’s time to focus on protecting our own borders instead of being the world’s police.
Doesn’t take much to run Linux, or to do command-line stuff, after all.
Linux isn’t the answer – as soon as enough people switch to the system, hackers will start hacking away. Apple’s once vaunted “we don’t get viruses” status has not existed for years.
The answer is encryption, PKI physical keys combined with complex passwords and fixed limited networks for really sensitive materials. There is no excuse for some of the material that was hacked to have been on a NIPR network
A $100 used laptop with a competent software engineer can pilfer billions, actually trillions of dollars worth of technology information/know how….
Amazing times.
Maybe it’s time to focus on protecting our own borders instead of being the world’s police.
Doesn’t take much to run Linux, or to do command-line stuff, after all.
Linux isn’t the answer – as soon as enough people switch to the system, hackers will start hacking away. Apple’s once vaunted “we don’t get viruses” status has not existed for years.
The answer is encryption, PKI physical keys combined with complex passwords and fixed limited networks for really sensitive materials. There is no excuse for some of the material that was hacked to have been on a NIPR network
The Chinese having been hacking DoD for years, this is nothing new. They’ve already hacked peripheral networks like DoDMERB – the medical clearing house for new soldiers and officers. We think they stole information from the medical database to use in creating false identities.
There is evidence that they have infiltrated the electrical power routing an distribution networks.
They stole the technology they’ve used to become world leaders in wind energy and computers (Google Sinovel).
They had access to Nortel for almost 10 years before someone in the IT department figured it out.
They’ve gone after Australia’s defense networks as well, stealing the plans for Oz’s latest spy plane.
It’s time we stole (bought) a Chinese nuclear weapon and then experimented with a low yield EMP explosion on the Asian land mass and then blamed the whole thing on rouge elements of the oddly named Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy
The Chinese having been hacking DoD for years, this is nothing new. They’ve already hacked peripheral networks like DoDMERB – the medical clearing house for new soldiers and officers. We think they stole information from the medical database to use in creating false identities.
There is evidence that they have infiltrated the electrical power routing an distribution networks.
They stole the technology they’ve used to become world leaders in wind energy and computers (Google Sinovel).
They had access to Nortel for almost 10 years before someone in the IT department figured it out.
They’ve gone after Australia’s defense networks as well, stealing the plans for Oz’s latest spy plane.
It’s time we stole (bought) a Chinese nuclear weapon and then experimented with a low yield EMP explosion on the Asian land mass and then blamed the whole thing on rouge elements of the oddly named Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy