US Army shuts down website amid attack by Syrian hackers

[Venustus]

Content source

http://nypost.com/2015/06/08/us-army-website-shut-down-amid-attack-by-syrian-hackers/

Computer hackers from Syria infiltrated the US Army’s website and compromised crucial information on Monday — forcing military officials to go offline indefinitely.

“Your commanders admit they are training the people they have sent you to die fighting,” a pop-up message on www.army.mil read at around 2:14pm, according to a tweet sent by the Syrian Electronic Army.

The US Army said they temporarily took down its website after the Pro-Palestine group hacked in to an element of the army.mil service provider’s content.
“After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website,” said Army Brigadier, General Malcolm Frost, the chief of Army public affairs.

The SEA first claimed responsibility for the hack on Twitter at around 11:48 a.m. on Monday.

Throughout the day, they posted screenshots from the Army site — including one that appeared to show sensitive employee information, such as first and last names, usernames, office email addresses and the active statuses of users.

“The #SEA hacks the official website of the US Army and leave several messages on it,” the group tweeted.

Coincidentally, President Obama spoke about cyber terrorism at a press conference Monday at the G7 summit in Germany — where he pointed out how the US has outdated computer systems with “significant vulnerabilities.”

“This problem is not going to go away,” he said, in response to an online attack last week on US government computers that compromised the personnel records of an estimated 4 million current and former federal government employees.

“It is going to accelerate,” he explained. “And that means that we have to be as nimble, as aggressive and as well-resourced as those who are trying to break into these systems.”

As of Monday afternoon, attempts to gain access to the Army website continued to result in an error message.

 

[frogboy]

They should take it down permanently.

 

[OokamiCreed]

They should take it down permanently.

Yeah until they stop using all the updated hardware to spy on innocent people. Use all that cyber muscle for good instead of evil. It helps everyone in the end if you do right instead of wrong. It's funny that I understand my cat more than I understand my own kinds actions. We humans are something else. It's hard to feel like your not in some computer simulation with all this crazy happening. Probably am (possible insanity talking lol).

 

[Tony Cole]

I just hope we manage to sort this out! What is currently going on in the middle east is genocide, and resembles the kinda doctrine Hitler enforced.

 

[WinXPert]

a dose of their own medicine.

 

[OokamiCreed]

a dose of their own medicine.

I assume your pointing at the government and not the soldiers that bleed for others. I can think of other governments that deserve far worse. Like North Korea. After all we aren't killing people for falling asleep at a conference now are we? And remember the past. No country is perfect or innocent.

 

[Venustus]

I assume your pointing at the government and not the soldiers that bleed for others. I can think of other governments that deserve far worse. Like North Korea. After all we aren't killing people for falling asleep at a conference now are we? And remember the past. No country is perfect or innocent.

Indeed, the government,not the people/soldiers!!

Thanks!

 

[nsm0220]

The army should dump Mcafee for good and get a better firewall.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

While it is "big" to the media, there are men and women in the U.S Army right now thinking "Oh not this crap again..alright, let's start cleaning up.". It's a common thing, been happening for years and they can handle it. Hackers attack defense and intelligence entities all day and all night, it's just 21st century cyber warfare. The crappy thing is, the people left to cleanup the mess have no say in how the networks are secured..sadly sometimes not even the ones doing the actual securing of the networks. The same human behavioral problems that cause your work systems to be easy to screw over and not do the one job you need it to do the right way, are the same in the military. I've heard some first hand account stories out a few special forces facilities that would keep many security experts shaking and sweating in their beds at night. Bureaucracy will always be bureaucracy and the bane of sane men and women.

Speaking of whom, the entire military is not to blame for this spying nonsense, nor is the entire government. As always, it's a few bad/misguided people put in the right positions at the right places. Not everyone in the NSA is for all of it either, there are plenty of Snowdens in that building. Just most want to keep their jobs and families secure, and no one has any right whatsoever to put them to the stake for not speaking out unless they themselves have the sacks to do it and deal with the consequences. Anyway, this will all go away soon enough.

 

[LabZero]

We don't need to be experts on wars and weapons and the undersigned is not certainly , to understand how the concept of war is increasingly extended to coincide with the technological development. Cannot impress the fact that even the Internet , the "network" has become a battlefield of primary importance, such as those by land, sea and air must be defended and made operational. Behind we have very solid examples of "social network" in spreading lies and false news or to support the overthrow of government operations. These are essentially new forms of attack to which follow though not always , real warfare.

 

[frogboy]

We don't need to be experts on wars and weapons and the undersigned is not certainly , to understand how the concept of war is increasingly extended to coincide with the technological development. Cannot impress the fact that even the Internet the "network" has become a battlefield of primary importance, such as those by land, sea and air must be defended and made operational. Behind we have very solid examples of "social network" in spreading lies and false news or to support the overthrow of government operations. These are essentially new forms of attack to which follow though not always , real warfare.

So very well explained and i agree 100%.

 

[Venustus]

The army should dump Mcafee for good and get a better firewall.

They are going to need more than that to stave off being hacked!!

 

[comfortablynumb15]

I'm not certain just how much the general population realizes that modern military would be completely crippled without the Internet. So you're damned straight it's an important battlefield, perhaps the most important. This is why, much as we sometimes hate them and want to see their powers lessened, we NEED the NSA, CIA, USCYBERCOM, etc. Every government that has ever existed has had its villains and "means well but wrong" operations, but without them, we are well and truly screwed. I have plenty to complain about in regards to current affairs, but we have to keep in mind the downsides to not having these things around along with the upside.

As for the media, well, even in the "good ole days" when you had now legendary news anchors there were always bad reports and misinformation. Social media has just made it so much easier to report without having to answer to anyone. There have always been and always will be misinformation campaigns and people spreading rumors and lies.

 

[frogboy]

I'm not certain just how much the general population realizes that modern military would be completely crippled without the Internet. So you're damned straight it's an important battlefield, perhaps the most important. This is why, much as we sometimes hate them and want to see their powers lessened, we NEED the NSA, CIA, USCYBERCOM, etc. Every government that has ever existed has had its villains and "means well but wrong" operations, but without them, we are well and truly screwed. I have plenty to complain about in regards to current affairs, but we have to keep in mind the downsides to not having these things around along with the upside.

As for the media, well, even in the "good ole days" when you had now legendary news anchors there were always bad reports and misinformation. Social media has just made it so much easier to report without having to answer to anyone. There have always been and always will be misinformation campaigns and people spreading rumors and lies.

Really i thought everything we saw and hear on the news was taken as gospel.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

I was touching on what Klipsh said about the war in media ya smartass Besides, there are plenty of people that believe "If my favorite news channel said it, it must be true!". Exchange news channel with follower on Facebook, armchair commander/politician, Uncle Bob, etc.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

I also am entertained by those who put a lot of stock in 140 characters, lol.

 

[jamescv7]

There's a misconception that US are very strong in such broad category however they have a drawbacks and weaknesses.

It shows that computer security and handling IT related issues are just take for granted which the powerful and undeadliness attacks are came online which disrupts all the system functions in a quick matter of time.

Also the problem here is a possibility of 'overspending' to configure on a new system where an alternative which cheap but pretty effective though.

 

[comfortablynumb15]

There was a misconception for years, yes. But no one who actually knows the "innards" of U.S national infrastructure both in the civilian and military sectors thinks it is very strong, and enough information has been publicized and talked about in recent years to make that misconception go bye bye. Every nation takes things for granted, humans are very complacent creatures by nature and it shows in their work. Overspending is one of the biggest problems, you hit that right on the bullseye. Money doesn't solve every problem, whether physical or otherwise. If you over-complicate things, especially when dealing with security, you raise the chances of spectacular failure at the most inopportune time. There's a reason the K.I.S.S principle exists.

 

[Venustus]

Really i thought everything we saw and hear on the news was taken as gospel.

Unfortunately the majority of the populace considers "News" from the mainstream media as gospel!!
Mostly it is misinformation as far as I'm concerned!!

“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.

Mark Twain

 

[Tony Cole]

It's ironic, the United States is the most powerful nation in the world, the NSA/CIA have billions at their disposal, and could follow and monitor are every movement(s). Yet, in the normal dept's. (not the CIA, NSA, FBI) i.e., the army get a load of crap.