From the Los Angles Times; Reporting from Washington — Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush this week on a severe and widespread electronic attack on Defense Department computers that may have originated in Russia — an incursion that posed unusual concern among commanders and raised potential implications for national security.
Defense officials would not describe the extent of damage inflicted on military networks. But they said that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The attack also penetrated at least one highly protected classified network.
Full story http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cyberattack28-2008nov28,0,6441140.story
Now the fact that the Russians, who are listed as the most likely suspect in this attack, are probably the ones behind this was not really that surprising to me. That honor would have to go to the line “Senior military leaders took the exceptional step of briefing President Bush.” Exactly how many other similar things have occurred, and no one bothered to tell the President? I may not care for the outgoing administration, but it would be nice to think that they were at least kept in the loop. Who knows, maybe they normally just tell Cheney.
