Category Archives: Defense Department

The tech behind the DARPA Grand Challenge winner will now be used by the Pentagon

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After witnessing the raw power of a machine that can fix its own software security flaws at DEF CON 24 more than one year ago, the Pentagon has officially purchased the revolutionary technology from a small, Pittsburgh-based firm. The makers of a supercomputer designed to automatically detect, patch and exploit existing software vulnerabilities were recently awarded a seven-figure contract from the Department of Defense to apply the cutting-edge technology to military systems, including U.S. Navy ships and aircraft. The Pentagon’s startup-centric office, named the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), is currently overseeing the venture. The two-year contract is part of a program dubbed “Voltron,” which will offer the technology to a variety of different defense agencies in an effort to find coding flaws in both operating systems and custom programs used by the U.S. military. Voltron represents a multi-contract effort — which includes but is not limited to the aforementioned […]

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GAO: Pentagon hasn’t met conditions for separating NSA and Cyber Command

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The Department of Defense has not finally decided whether to separate the leadership of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command and has not begun to meet the congressionally mandated conditions for doing so, the Government Accountability Office said in a report Tuesday. A provision in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act required the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to jointly certify that ending the so-called dual-hat arrangement — under which the same four-star general is both NSA director and in charge of U.S. Cyber Command — will not pose risks to the command’s military effectiveness. “As of April 2017, DOD’s senior leaders had not decided whether the dual-hat leadership should be ended,” states the GAO report, adding that department’s leaders were “reviewing the steps and funding necessary to meet the statutory requirements of Section 1642” but had not yet begun to do so. The NDAA […]

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Here are the cybersecurity amendments added to the House’s defense bill

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Lawmakers attached several cybersecurity-focused amendments to the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act in a last-minute effort Wednesday to change how the federal government defends itself from cyberattacks and how the military conducts offensive cyber-operations. The House was still working on the bill as of Thursday afternoon. The provisions added Wednesday joined an already lengthy list of items related to government cybersecurity initiatives. Because the NDAA is a policy bill and not a spending bill, congressional rules leave it more open to amendments. It’s common for lawmakers to use it as a vehicle for a wide range of legislative priorities. Most of the amendments added Wednesday have a military component, though. A total of five cybersecurity amendments were added Wednesday to the House’s version of the bill, which still faces a conference committee with the Senate version. Reps. Mike Johnson, R-La., Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., Gregg Harper, R-Miss., Robert Brady, D-Pa., Jose Correa, […]

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How China’s cyber command is being built to supersede its U.S. military counterpart

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As U.S. leaders contemplate a proper definition for “cyberwar,” their counterparts in China have been building a unit capable of fighting such a large-scale conflict. China’s rival to U.S. Cyber Command, the ambiguously named Strategic Support Force (SSF), is quietly growing at a time when the country’s sizable military is striving to excel in the digital domain. Though the American government is widely considered to be one of the premier hacking powers — alongside Israel, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom — China is rapidly catching up by following a drastically different model. The SSF uniquely conducts several different missions simultaneously that in the U.S. would be happening at the National Security Agency, Army, Air Force, Department of Homeland Security, NASA, State Department and Cyber Command, among others. If you combined all of those government entities and added companies like Intel, Boeing and Google to the mix, then you would come close to how the […]

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Why You Should Be Skeptical of the US Military’s ‘Successful’ Missile Defense Test

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The missile it intercepted was probably moving slower than one fired at the US from North Korea would be. Continue reading Why You Should Be Skeptical of the US Military’s ‘Successful’ Missile Defense Test→

Proposed bill would make DOD tell Congress when ‘special cyber operations’ are taking place

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There’s an oversight bill in the works that would compel the Defense Department to notify Congress when the military is engaged in sensitive cyber operations. The bipartisan legislation, as it’s currently written, would require congressional notification when the Defense Department takes action in cyberspace under U.S. Code Title 10, which supervises operations led by Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, as well as the Reserves. Title 10 is unrelated to the U.S. government’s intelligence gathering mission set, which is led by federal organizations like the National Security Agency. Sponsored by top House Armed Service Committee Reps. Elise Stefanik, D-N.Y., Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Adam Smith, D-Wash., the bill does not provide Congress with any additional authorization authority, but rather codifies an informal disclosure process that exists between the Defense Department and relevant congressional committees. There is no mention of a public disclosure element in […]

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U.S. cyber warriors are getting better at fighting ISIS online, says top general

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The U.S. military has gotten better at countering ISIS’ digital operations over the last six months, according to Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone, commanding general of Army Cyber Command. “I think what we are learning is in terms of being able to counter a message, being able to attack a brand — in this case the brand of ISIS — and then, the other thing is, how do we do this with the speed and accuracy that is able to get at an adversary that six months ago was moving uncontested in cyberspace,” Nakasone said during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing. “I think we’ve learned those things over the last six months. I think we as a department have done much better.” ISIS shares propaganda, communicates with allies and spreads other messaging via the internet. In the past, the group’s successful use of social media has been linked to terrorist […]

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WannaCry hit U.S. Army machine, marking first federal government infection

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WannaCry ransomware infected a machine tied to an IP address associated with the Army Research Laboratory, CyberScoop has learned. The information, found on a list of affected IP addresses provided by a security vendor, would mark the first time the ransomware was found on a federal government computer. The security vendor, who provided the data on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive material, observed communications from the victim IP address to the attackers’ known command and control server on May 12; confirming that the ransomware infection involving the ARL was in fact successful. The IP address is tied to a block parked at a host located at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The type of machine the IP address is attached to is unknown. While ARL is based in Adelphi, Maryland, the laboratory has multiple outposts, including stations at Fort Huachuca. The Arizona base is also home to the Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command […]

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Pentagon hackers-for-hire take just 4 hours to find critical vulnerability in sensitive system

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This article first appeared on FedScoop. The Pentagon’s cybersecurity swat team has hosted highly-publicized challenges to find flaws in department and military branch websites, but it also recently orchestrated a more secret, complex project. The Defense Digital Service wanted to hire outside researchers to root out vulnerabilities in systems carrying sensitive department data — but without worrying about compromising the […]

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