On Bush's Watch, U.S. Suffered Its "Electronic Pearl Harbor"

Sunday's 60 Minutes featured a pretty terrifying report on the potential threat the United States faces from cyberterrorism. It's territory that the show has mined before.

As Steve Kroft pointed out at the outset of the report, the show had "less than a decade ago" gone to the Pentagon to learn more about how computers could be used by hackers "as a weapon." "Much of it was still theory," Kroft related, "But we were told that before too long, it might be possible for a hacker with a computer to disable critical infrastructure in a major city, and disrupt essential services, to steal millions of dollars from banks all over the world, infiltrate defense systems, extort millions from public companies, even sabotage our weapons systems."

Eep! Sounds like someone better get on that, before something terrible happens! Except guess what, something terrible already did. "Plus a lot that we don't even know about," Kroft said. Great.

Enter Jim Lewis, who directs the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who says that the United States experienced its "electronic Pearl Harbor" in 2007:

LEWIS: Some unknown foreign power, and honestly, we don't know who it is, broke into the Department of Defense, to the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, probably the Department of Energy, probably NASA. They broke into all of the high tech agencies, all of the military agencies, and downloaded terabytes of information.

Lewis goes on to point out that the entire Library Of Congress is the equivalent of 12 terabytes, so that sort of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? And it's not like hackers were making off with William Faulkner novels!

And last November, according to Lewis, "someone was able to get past the firewall and encryption devices of one of the most sensitive U.S. military computer systems and stay inside for several days." That system? The CENTCOM network, which you might know as "the people who are fighting all of our wars." The hackers were able to sit inside the network, tracking information and documents "like they were part of military command."

This, Lewis said, is the "most significant" breach of security ever "acknowledged by the Pentagon." Not acknowledging this, however, is the Bush administration, on whose watch all of this happened. Asked why the public was never told about the extent to which the United States had already suffered significant cyber-casualties, Lewis said: "You know, I've been trying to figure out why that is. And some of it is the previous administration didn't want to admit that they had been rolled in 2007." Worse yet, in Lewis' estimation, the seriousness of the threat, even now, "doesn't seem to be sinking in."

Hopefully, Liz Cheney will find some way to waterboard the Internet!

WATCH:

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RELATED:
Foreign Hackers Pulled Off 'Electronic Pearl Harbor' Under Bush/Cheney in 2007[Animal NY]

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Comments

[cybolt]

I love the lead sentence..­.

"Sunday's 60 Minutes featured a pretty terrifying report..."

Pretty terrifying??? How do you modify terrifying? Are there degrees of terrifying? Don't think so.

That's kind of like saying Jeffrey Dahmer's acts were "sort of horrendous­."

[RTIII]

When I first read and responded to this, I was distracted with other things, but now that it has sunk in, I've realized that we very likely have (at least one - possibly many) traitor among us...

You know, packet routing is such a basic fundamental - EVERY computer / network router ("appliance") between a pair of computers must participate in the packet handling and this necessarily involves routing. Even if it was unknown what was in the data packets, knowing where it's going is EASY....YO­U CANNOT HIDE WHERE AN OUTBOUND PACKET IS GOING. (Yes, you can make hops after the initial connection that _are_ hidden, but the initial out-bound destination is in _every_ data packet's header.)

Because it is so easy, and because CENTCOM is so obviously a place where key security protocols must be in place, it STRONGLY suggests an inside job and not merely security incompetence. I mean CENTCOM?! You can't tell me they aren't interested in the security of that network... Someone is a traitor to the nation, it's virtually certain. There is no excuse like, "hey, the other guys were just that good!" Bullfeathers.
.

[mrjames1]

Wow thats a lot of data! Another great read by Mr. Linkins. Just think it was only 13 years ago, in 1996, that Tom Cruise and his Mission Impossible team had to construct an elaborate ruse to break into Langl*y to get access to a couple hundred kilobite NOC list. Now its muuuch easier

I guess times have changed, as back in '96 my 28.8 connection and 386 IBM could barely download photos of a swimsuit wearing Kathy Ireland. I miss the good ol days...

Still wondering how Mr. Cruise managed to steal a brand new fire truck in that one ;-)

[austin4]

"For This is the Bush Legacy."

[rughead23]

Ben Franklin said something to the effect that giving up freedoms for security than neither are deserved. Now the US took a tremendous national security hit when our freedoms were encroached upon. The notions of surveilance and hacking make me feel a bit schizophrenic having lived with the idea of freedom my entire life.

[AbeMartin]

The ONLY things Bush watched during the interminable eight years of his so-called "administration," was the speedometer on his Trek trail bike, the time elapsed on his treadmill, and the calendar to count down the days until his next vacation.

He didn't give a rat's-A** about the economy, the nation's security, the deterioration of the nation's infrastructure, the lack of security of our telecommunications and computer systems, or the sane pursuit of foreign policy.

[ManWithBrain]

He kept a pretty sharp eye on the brush at his "ranch" in Texas too...alwa­ys with the brush clearing.

[oldwhitewomantoo]

Not being a techy & certainly NOT being a hacker, I wonder why it always seems that the hackers know more than the "good guys" and ask why there are some honorable people with those same hacking skills working in these agencies? Or is that a mutually-exclusive term, "honorable" and "hacker" in the same phrase?

[oldwhitewomantoo]

Sorry -- typo . . . "ask why there are NOT some honorable people with those same hacking skills working in these agencies?" . . . .

[Cantinflas]

There probably are. It is my understanding that many hackers get jobs as computer security experts, sometimes as part of their sentences for getting caught hacking illegally.

[jalaroc]

I've always found it irritating that the bush administration looked, with disdain, upon the clinton administration as amateurs while they themselves flubbed every. single. thing. that came their way. This is is yet another reason why the bush administration was so rabid about secrecy, it was the primary tool for hiding the true extent of its incompetence from the american people. While the "dream team" was classifying public information and shutting down citizens' access to how our government functioned, they were allowing foreign powers and entities to cart all our nation's secrets out the back door. heck, they were so clueless, they probably held the door open for the hackers and warned them not to drop anything when they were coming and going.

Here's the scary part, it will take billions upon billions of dollars to truly secure our networks. I think that's another reason why the bush administration didn't acknowledge how badly they'd been taken by the hacks, to do so publically would have forced them to actually spend money on the problem and we all know the bush administration's history of maintaining our national infrastructure: they didn't. IT security is not particularly sexy and requires massive amounts of continued investment to remain effective. It was probably a not an investment the bush administration was remotely interested in.

[Cantinflas]

It's the great republican myth that since they are, supposedly, better at running businesses that it follows that they are better at governing.

[cybolt]

I found this story thoroughly frightening and was utterly astounded that it took 48 hours to get it up here.

[jalaroc]

yes, an event that happened in 2007 should be considered a "time is of the essence" story.

[cybolt]

1. The breach has remained unknown to the public until now.
2. The story revealed old AND current weaknesses in our defense and infrastructure not known to the general public that endangers much of how we operate daily.
3.. Apparently, no wholesale changes have taken place to resolve the exposed weaknesses.
4. Therefore, you're a tool. Try this:

"A CBS News investigative report reveals that massive defense contractor Halliburton supplied money and information for the purpose of blackmailing and/or bribing members of the Supreme Court and election officials in Florida in order to secure the presidency for George W. Bush in 2000."

THAT'S not a "time is of the essence" story either, now is it?

[jimmyjones22]

China, I think it's pretty obvious.

[jalaroc]

good bet. or north korea or russia. could have even been one of the big criminal networks. personally, i think they should treat hackers like terrorists. exactly like terrorists.

[Cantinflas]

Israel would be a good bet, too.

[oxygen]

EMP

[desertman]

EMP???? lmao.... who cares about cyber terrorism that point....

[weatherwaxx]

I doubt Liz Cheney has to ask anybody except Daddy. The system was hacked after the Republicans knew they'd be leaving power. It's a pity they had a couple of months to wreck things after Obama won.

[ObamAtomic]

2007.

[desertman]

I thought it got hacked whev Clinton knew he was leaving office? no?

[austin4]

NO!!

[ExFatoFides]

Wow, not only an amazing Olympics in 2008, but an amazing technological coup in 2007. OR, Putin takes down the oligarchs, then knocks out computing in Georgia, then steals the secrets of the United States defense posture for the next 15 to 20 years. OR India tests a nuclear weapons program, then is allowed to keep the nukes (coup 2), then with the best technology brain trust hacks America (coup 3), OR the European Union watches with glee from the sidelines as Bush damages the American brand, then begins an attack on the American currency, France & Germany re-install central Europe to global influence by hacking a so-called ally, OR (insert any scenario that you like).

[Collielady]

Could anything more have gone wrong during the Dubya years? Is there anything that DIDN'T go wrong?

[Phalanxman]

At least he lived through it. Can you imagine if Dick had become prez?

[weatherwaxx]

Not a lot of difference. 95% of the time, he was, for all practical purposes.

[greendrake]

I suppose I'm probably not the first one to note that this isn't the ONLY Pearl-Harbor-like event on Dubya's watch....

[weatherwaxx]

Dubya's whole watch was one disaster after another.