6 ms·

Nuclear weapons agency breached amid cyber onslaught

43 points by superjan 6y ago

aazaa 6y ago
> The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said. This kind of thing raises the disturbing question of what will/should be done in response. About 1/4 of the country believes that the last presidential election was rigged, and over 100 members of Congress supported a lawsuit to the same effect. So it seems plausible that claims by the next administration of culpability will face a stiff resistance from not only the public but Congress itself.
TurkishPoptart 6y ago
It seems that Russia's cyber prime directive is to ceaselessly attempt to penetrate USG contractor's systems, which, to a layperson seems like an obvious cybersecurity flaw. How are these systems secured in other Western countries? How do France and the UK, for example, secure their critical infrastructure networks? The U.S. strategy of just contracting out all these essential service is revealing its pressure points. Seems that the USG insists on just cutting checks to these companies like SolarWinds, which are more interested in gaining clients, generating revenue, and marketing than effectively engineering durable solutions. Another factor is probably NIST's questionable practices about password hygiene (requiring them to be changed every 30-60 days).
- azornathogron 6y ago
  NIST stopped recommending forced/regular password changes a few years ago. There are probably better citations but this is the first I found: https://grahamcluley.com/new-nist-guidelines-do-away-with-periodic-password-changes/ https://grahamcluley.com/new-nist-guidelines-do-away-with-pe...
- ohiovr 6y ago
  Russia has been using typewriters and couriers since at least 2015.

6 ms·

Nuclear weapons agency breached amid cyber onslaught

43 points by superjan 6y ago

aazaa 6y ago
> The Energy Department and National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, have evidence that hackers accessed their networks as part of an extensive espionage operation that has affected at least half a dozen federal agencies, officials directly familiar with the matter said. This kind of thing raises the disturbing question of what will/should be done in response. About 1/4 of the country believes that the last presidential election was rigged, and over 100 members of Congress supported a lawsuit to the same effect. So it seems plausible that claims by the next administration of culpability will face a stiff resistance from not only the public but Congress itself.
TurkishPoptart 6y ago
It seems that Russia's cyber prime directive is to ceaselessly attempt to penetrate USG contractor's systems, which, to a layperson seems like an obvious cybersecurity flaw. How are these systems secured in other Western countries? How do France and the UK, for example, secure their critical infrastructure networks? The U.S. strategy of just contracting out all these essential service is revealing its pressure points. Seems that the USG insists on just cutting checks to these companies like SolarWinds, which are more interested in gaining clients, generating revenue, and marketing than effectively engineering durable solutions. Another factor is probably NIST's questionable practices about password hygiene (requiring them to be changed every 30-60 days).
- azornathogron 6y ago
  NIST stopped recommending forced/regular password changes a few years ago. There are probably better citations but this is the first I found: https://grahamcluley.com/new-nist-guidelines-do-away-with-periodic-password-changes/ https://grahamcluley.com/new-nist-guidelines-do-away-with-pe...
- ohiovr 6y ago
  Russia has been using typewriters and couriers since at least 2015.