[DEBATE]Pentagon Admits to biggest ever data breach,wow! - General Security Discussions

mandi


According to Report, Department of Defense and Pentagon is disclosing news of the one of the largest data loss events to date &#46; From investigation, officials to believe the intrusion was orchestrated by a foreign government&#46; The theft of around 24,000 sensitive Pentagon documents occurred in March 2011&#46;

I am willing to start a DEBATE on this topic

source:


http&#58;//www&#46;thehackernews&#46;com/2011/07/pentagon-admits-to-biggest-ever-data&#46;html

I am some what amazed about this hack,

To my guess us hacking in to a WORLD CLASS network like pentagon was never that easy like ppl hacking in other networks with sqli,xss,bof's etc(i am just guessing ,if i am wrong notify me)

To my guess a Defence network should be different in many ways from the ordinary networks

In my past these three are the only things i had heard about the US defence networks,i am not sure about it,but i have just heard

1)OS being used are fully modded (i.e linux and bsd's)
2)core network containing sensitive files could be uni-directional networks
3)may be their core network is designed on a principle like this
"NO ONE HAS COMPLETE CONTROL OVER ALL THE RESOURCES ON THE NETWORK"
(Readed in some book does not remember its name)

In the news they had mentioned that US is guessing a foreign govt's hand

i am always interested to know about Defense networks and the security mechanism and the advanced attacking mechanisms used to do things like this

and stealing 24,000 sensitive documents from A NETWORK like PENTAGON really amazing me,

so if you have any views/comments about the US defence networks,their technologies,their security mechanisms and how ppl are attacking these kind of network? any informations about their attacking methods,if you have to say any thing related to the above
things and also regarding this topic please share here and let others know..

Hope we will have a good knowledge-full DEBATE...

NOTE:i know this is bit old,but in order to have a good debate i had posted this....hope no one will mind it :)

m0rph

Yes, classified networks are technically uni-directional. Depending on the classification of a particular network, they are always behind a NAT within an already NAT'ed network, and all of the traffic leaving the classified network is encrypted with either 192-bit or 256-bit AES. Nonetheless the keys for the encryption are ridiculously complex.

No, there is no single person that has complete control over all aspects of the network. Everyone has a separation of responsibilities to prevent an insider with all-powerful access being compromised, or sabotaging the network.

The only conceivable method of attack, atleast in my opinion, is through the use of advanced persistent threats. But even then, such an attack would be difficult.

Gathering classified e-mail addresses, gathering 0-days, dodging e-mail attachment filters, not tripping an IPS/IDS, routing a shell from an otherwise unroutable network...the list goes on. Not to mention the standard cleaning up after yourself phase.

To effectively attack a classified network, you would have to already have extensive knowledge of the specific network you would want to attack.

DISCLAIMER: All information I have just posted is publicly available, and unclassified. I take no responsibility for the actions of others who may or may not use the contents of this post for good or bad.

mandi


Yes, classified networks are technically uni-directional&#46; Depending on the classification of a particular network, they are always behind a NAT within an already NAT'ed network, and all of the traffic leaving the classified network is encrypted with either 192-bit or 256-bit AES&#46; Nonetheless the keys for the encryption are ridiculously complex&#46;

yes,i am sure they could have their own encryption algorithms and i heard military traffic are heavily encrypted......


No, there is no single person that has complete control over all aspects of the network&#46; Everyone has a separation of responsibilities to prevent an insider with all-powerful access being compromised, or sabotaging the network&#46;

yes,i have heard about this in some book,but assume like this in a sub-net there are some 100 pc's in order to maintain that 100 pc with out central control ,imagine how complex network design they have,imagine how complex to control the users with out a central controlling system ?simply clueless!!!


The only conceivable method of attack, atleast in my opinion, is through the use of advanced persistent threats&#46; But even then, such an attack would be difficult&#46;

Gathering classified e-mail addresses, gathering 0-days, dodging e-mail attachment filters, not tripping an IPS/IDS, routing a shell from an otherwise unroutable network&#46;&#46;&#46;the list goes on&#46; Not to mention the standard cleaning up after yourself phase&#46;

To effectively attack a classified network, you would have to already have extensive knowledge of the specific network you would want to attack&#46;

advanced persistent threats? uhh,we need to invent attacks to get in to those networks?

and to my knowledge only another government who knows/owns these kind of facility only can do this,this is my guess ..


DISCLAIMER&#58; All information I have just posted is publicly available, and unclassified&#46; I take no responsibility for the actions of others who may or may not use the contents of this post for good or bad&#46;

haha...

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