Pentagon Can't Trace Source Of China Cyber Attacks, Lynn Says (Bloomberg.com)

Pentagon Can't Trace Source Of China Cyber Attacks, Lynn Says

Bloomberg.com, 15 June 2009

Tony Capaccio

The Pentagon is unable to trace with certainty the source of cyber attacks on U.S. military systems that originate in China, Defense Secretary William Lynn said.

"Some of the attacks, we've traced back to China but we have not at this point been able to attribute whether it's military intelligence, industry or criminal" hackers, Lynn said in a speech today at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The inability to pinpoint who in China or other foreign locales is hacking into the Pentagon's more than 15,000 networks is among the primary challenges the U.S. military faces as it seeks to improve its cyber defenses, Lynn said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates hasn't said whether the Pentagon will establish a separate unit to coordinate the military's cyber-security programs and to initiate attacks on adversary cyber systems. If a unit is set up, it would be part of the U.S. Strategic Command, which is charged with defending the nation against nuclear attacks.

Senior Pentagon officials rarely acknowledge that China is a source of cyber attacks on U.S. systems. Lynn's remarks back up similar statements from some lawmakers.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said in Feb. 12 interview that the Chinese government and freelance hackers are the primary culprits behind as many as several hundred daily attacks against U.S. government, electric-utility and financial computer networks.

Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a panel that oversees NASA, said March 20 that his office's computer network had been attacked by someone in China.

Nelson said the network had been hacked into three times in the previous 30 days, although no classified material was obtained.