Malware at the Department of Defense

Malware at the Department of Defense

At the Pentagon, meanwhile, it is not clear how a virus got into the Department of Defense's (DoD) systems, even though its computer network is probed by outsiders millions of times daily, DoD spokesperson Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh said in an e-mail to InternetNews.com.

"We are aware of a global virus for which there are recent public alerts," Butterbaugh said. "We have seen some of this on our networks, and are taking steps to identify and mitigate the virus." He declined to discuss the problem in detail, which has resulted in the Pentagon banning the use of removable media. He also declined to comment on specific defensive measures the DoD has in place or plans to take in response to the virus.......

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has been forced to ban the use of removable media such as USB flash drives after its networks were hit by an unspecified virus.....

Of course, malware is a persistent threat even for the most heavily protected networks -- one package, the Sinowal Trojan, has been around for three years and is particularly difficult to detect and defend against.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.

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Paradigm Intel indicates the DOD thinks it got on its system from removable data.

This assumption may not be correct.

Internt anti-virus companys themselves are contributing to the problem,

Some Security suites provide very little protection from Trojans or some vectors

for infection, the entire Internet Security Industry is in disaray.

Now one needs sweepers for malware, sweepers for rootkits, black lists for SLQ injection,

keylogger blocks, Bot trackers, Firewalls, anti-virus, process guards, and another half dozen security programs to even feel secure.

And still they get through, these are not uberhackers, but random drive by attacks.

Even the biggest sites are not 100% safe, Google whos security I think is outstanding

can infect your computer with just a visit, SLQ injection etc.

As the Internet ages security has gotten worse not better..

The Paradigm for this Internet security problem has always been lagging.

The first efforts at making the Internet or WWW was focused on just making it work.

That concept continues with new products developed today, security for new applications

is an after thought, USA needs a mahatten type project to find a way to secure computers and

the Internet. It just isn't getting enough research money.

And the Bad guys find a way to get paid everyting they find an exploit.

With the Criminal and Terrorist vectors crossing this is going to be an IMPERATIVE.

Gerald

,Tactical Internet Systems analyst