I'd be willing to guess that the h4x0rz used the same backdoors that Microsoft leaves for the NSA. I can't help but think if they'd used Linux, that this wouldn't have happened.

Makes you wonder how you don't see terabytes of information leaving a network to the outside.. Don't get me wrong I realize its a large federal program with many people working on it but still.. Terabytes of information should of shown up somewhere. Our government seems to be behind on the cyberwar these days.

scary stuff man... its about time tho that the U.S. steps up the game on internet security and traffic tho.

This time it wasn't the gov't that screwed up.

Great, now we'll have "Made in China" F-22 Raptor knock offs for half the price, but with lead and melamine contaminants

Sorry, I meant Joint Strike Fighter knock offs...

It's only scare tactics, now they can justify it when they give Obama the orders to shut down the net.

Oh, btw gotta love the Spy vs. Spy pic

Why would the government even connect computers with sensitive data to the web? That's just plain stupid, especially when you know that there are vulnerabilities.

China is planning war in the middle east as soon as USA leaves.
I think a lot has to do with their overpopulation and search for newer grounds to get (even) more resources.

Anyone seen China has a military army of over 200 Million heads?

Oh i bet they are getting a stern talking to about security. I think i remember reading that the CIA's usb ports are cemented over to prevent usb vulnerablities lol.

Sounds like its a contractors fault, but again, why? I've worked on sensitive (but not secret) projects before, you take measures against this sort of thing.

I want to know how their IT department didn't notice TERABYTES of data being sent outside the network. Even with an OC-192 (10Gbps) backbone that would take a few minutes, considering they probably have a far slower connection, and that data eithre took years to copy or someone wasn't paying attention.

"It's only scare tactics, now they can justify it when they give Obama the orders to shut down the net."

@sanctoon

You sir have just hit the preverbal nail on the head. Interesting how these things just seem to work so well together...and happening around the same time period. I just cannot believe our luck to be living in such wonderful times.

Yeah, not noticing terabytes of data leaving the network is the result of poor management. I agree that it probably took a long time for them to get the data.

The Chinese are getting good at cyber warfare. They want to be able to shut down all out internet/satellite capability, which would render our military useless.

What I don't get is how they were stealing TERABYTES. A few here seem to of mentioned that: even if they were on a direct fiber network, it'd still take several minutes to pull half that amount of data. What kind of lax security do we have going here that they could get even a single terabyte?

And this just proves one thing: the US Government needs to stop running Windows.

zip u are a moron, no offense, but our military would not be useless if that happend kid, lol but nice try on thinking u know what u are talking about.

They "traced the breaches back with a "high level of certainty" to known Chinese IPs, and a Pentagon report released in March detailed the progress China was making in online-warfare techniques". So if China is so cyber-advanced, how come they couldn't mask themselves and cover their tracks? Seems sloppy for this level of espionage. Maybe someone else wants China blamed?

The games governments play leave us common folk wondering about everything. One thing is sure. If any government is involved, hang onto your wallet.

Im sorry bout the goverment would never use a windows based operating system with access to the internet. Theres too many backdoors and exploits for windows to keep any information safe. Im sure they have their own modified version of Unix or something they created themselves.

Just you watch this is all a play. The next step the government is going to take is Federal internet regulation just you watch. Can't wait to be told what sites I can and can't visit, and what I can and can't download...

Paranoid, yes. Wrong, God I hope so...

oh and also. Probly not as long as you'd think. The military is already using the next itineration of the internet. Internet2. Supposed to get ridiculous download speeds.

http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3403161

This incident is a concerted effort:
1) The US is using this incident as a mean for the creation of Department of Homeland and Space Communication Security. The USA has many communication satellites and 'nuke' equipped Hubble Space Telescope (the shape of it is for the missiles, the images alleged to be from it are from the Department of Public Assessment, Communication and Control and is contracted out to Adobe, Facebook, and news agencies, Tomshardware excluded =) The USA must protect all communications on land, and in Space.

2) This incident is also a distraction used by the Chinese to mask correlation of its current more massive attack: Conficker. Conficker is being used to established a network of cyber troops ready to deal damange at the moment notice.

3) The recent hacks into Airforce Traffic is a cyber warfare readiness exercise to gauge AirForce response capabilities. Recent hacks into our power grid is for mapping power distribution to important medical facilities, local law enforcement, fire fighter stations, transportation (ground and air) system, military facilities.

4) At the push of a button the USA can be annihilated:
a) US air superiority compromised by injection of bogus GPS, command, weapon guidance and radar data into the network. Some sophisticated weapon system relies on precise timing of data from satelites to work, a DOS attack will server that purpose.
b) US commercial air traffic compromised by the same method.
c) Over sea military assests, Naval Aircraft Carrier forces, submarines are blinded without instruction and reliable data become sitting ducks. With a concerted effort multiple long range missile barrage and Joint Strike Freedom Air Fighters can take out the lame Naval fleets. Naval superiority compromised.
c) The attackers will notify local news of the compromises and attacks. After the initial Public notification the power grid is then shutdown. Local law enforcement, fire response, etc... will be powerless.
d) There will be mass hysteria overwhelming local law enforcement agencies. Without proper communications emergency response could not be carried out resulting in major fatalities.

So Pentagon what are you gona do?
FML

it is possible to not notice that type of information if it is leaving in small quantities, you're thinking of your home net work transfering a file from point A to point B going at X speed. They would be taking part of the file from many many point A's to a point B, from thousands of different remote computers. You don't see a huge file transfer you see lots of small file tranfers, which they would expect because they are working with private contractors constantly sending and recieving information.

There's to many hack for the Pentagon to do nothing to protect themselves for the last 10 years.I would bet they are giving the hackers disinformation.

no doubts in my mind at all.

Several terabytes. Sounds to me like their network admins are sleeping during the day.

I can't imagine it would be that hard for them to get in through Boeing, and Lockhead Martin. They both have big offices in China. Heck, we can't build the Tacticle Fighter without China. It's a complete disgrace. The US is all bloated and corrupt. We won't even train our own people to do cyber security because it's too expensive. Watch, the US will outsource our national security to India. They'll make you pay for it by working at WallMart and taxing the heck out of you.

Dude, the network Admin was DLing from torrents so he thought the the traffic was from the Torrents!
That or sleeping on the job or playing WoW,etc.

====
In all seriousness, the US needs to do the same thing to "other" nations that are deemed a "threat". They also need to shore up security.

Last time I checked, 2000 nukes were not hooked up to the internet...

Or perhaps, they ARE engaged in such a thing and is doing everything they can to lie and cover it up. Just like the good ol' Commie government we all know.

Those Commies can't fool everyone. Especially overseas & former citizens, who know how the government works. I think China is guilty of pretty much everything.

Betcha this is a misinformation exercise. They did it before with the USSR to great effect. If it was real data taken then this would've been hushed up something chronic and you'd see an announcement that the JSF was delayed for some reason.

The net effect of this will be that the US will seem like an easy target and support for more military/security spending will grow. Also there'll be a push for more local manufacture etc due to security concerns so this helps the US economy with jobs, etc. Also the Chinese potentially could be using tech that would have fatal flaws which would weaken them as a potential adversary.

Begin the beguine. Its the start of WW3