U.S. Defense Chief Warns of Digital 9/11
Wall Street Journal (blog)
By Rachel King
October 11, 2012
The scale and speed of cyber attacks is escalating and companies face more risk than ever before. Armed with technology that can help attribute attacks, the United States now has the capacity to locate attackers and hold them responsible, said U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Thursday night, in his first policy speech on cybersecurity. The Department of Defense is also updating its rules of engagement and procedures that guide a potential military response to a cyber attack.
Senior defense officials say a sophisticated virus attack against Saudi Arabian state oil company ARAMCO in August is an example of this escalation. “All told, the Shamoon virus was probably the most destructive attack that the private sector has seen to date,” said Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense in his first policy speech on cybersecurity. Secretary Panetta spoke Thursday night at a Business Executives for National Security dinner.
The Shamoon virus attacked 30,000 Saudi ARAMCO workstations and replaced crucial system files with an image of a burning U.S. flag. That virus added false information that overwrote all of the real data on those machines. The government declassified information to help the public understand the magnitude of the threat. …
Read on: http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/10/11/u-s-defense-chief-warns-of-digital-911/
