Re: Air Force hacks Navy? Eeeek!

[jps@monad.semcor.com (Jack P. Starrantino)]

The following article is from Defense News Oct. 9-15, 1995 pp1,37.

Hacker Exposes U.S. Vulnerability
By Pat Cooper and Frank Oliveri
Defense News Staff Writers

Washington -- A U.S. Air Force captain, using a personal computer and a
modem, penetrated the command and control systems of U.S. Navy ships
operating in the Atlantic Ocean, exhibiting the awesome offensive
capability of information warfare and the significant danger U.S. forces
are just beginning to learn how to counter.

Air Force personnel based at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., with the
knowledge and permission of the Navy, penetrated the computer systems of
naval ships in the Atlantic Ocean, Air Force Lt. Gen. John Fairfield,
deputy chief of staff for command, control, communications and
computers, said Sept. 25.

Using standard computers, Air Force operators tapped into the Internet,
via a telephone link to the information superhighway, and connected with
a ship through an electronic mail link in one of the ships' networked
computers, Air Force Officials said Sept. 28.

Once inside the ship's computer network, Air Force Operators navigated
to the ships command and control system and could have given the ship
bogus steering commands, Fairfield said.

The methods of the break-in and the actual vulnerabilities it exposed
are classified.

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jps
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