News: How Pentagon fights cyber spies

Pentagon released a report about how e-spies, software that download information or worse alter information, is their greatest threat in cyber warfare. Of course, all even remotely associated with infosec could have told them this decades ago, and of course, Pentagon has known all the time.

Todays challenge is the way social networks are used as a transport means to infect computers, and systems, inside the military. After all, the operators are simply humans, and humans can so easily be dubbed into clicking on the link stating "Is that really YOU in this video?".

As stated:

What’s particularly vexing about these intrusions is that sophisticated methods weren’t necessarily required to get inside the networks. In 2007, detailed schematics of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and the Camp Bucca detention facility in Iraq were downloaded by reporters from file transfer protocol servers with easy-to-find passwords or no protection at all. The malware that spread via thumb drive across the military in 2008 had been around, in one form or another, since the early ‘90s. In 2009, troops were so susceptible to virus- or Trojan-laden messages — supposedly sent from friends on Facebook and Twitter — that U.S. Strategic Command network security officers wanted to ban access to the social networks altogether.

You can download the full report here!

And the introduction, or overview is found here. Go on, it is well worth a look!