Last month, a Pentagon annual report to Congress about China's military power said China has been making continued progress in developing cyber-warfare techniques. The Wall Street Journal reported that the attacks appeared to originate in China, citing "former U.S. The intruders were able to cover their tracks, making it look like the virtual break-ins were coming from various parts of the world, according to officials. Officials could not say who was behind the computer hacking, which has occurred numerous times since 2007. He said the computer systems of the Department of Defense are scanned thousands of times a day by entities looking for ways inside U.S. "We have seen the number of intrusion attempts more than double recently," he said. Whitman would not confirm the cyber-security breach on the Joint Strike Fighter program but said the number of attempted attacks on the U.S. That measure was put into place within the past year because of the increase in cyber intrusions, they said.Īsked whether sensitive technology for the Joint Strike Fighter had been jeopardized, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "I am not aware of any specific concerns." The involvement of multiple nations raises concern about the level of computer security measures the partner countries have, officials said.Ĭompanies contracting with the Department of Defense now have to prove that they are using the proper computer security before a contract can be awarded, Pentagon officials said. Many international partners are helping build the plane, and it will be sold to U.S.-allied countries. Representatives of BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman would not comment on the story and referred all questions to Lockheed Martin.ĭifferent variations of the Joint Strike Fighter will be produced for the different branches of service it will be used in. Like the government, we have attacks on our systems continually and have stringent measures in place to detect and stop attacks," the statement said. "To our knowledge, there has never been any classified information breach. In a statement released later, the company reiterated its position that no classified information had been accessed. We have measures in place, and there's never been a successful attack." "There's never been any effective attack. But in response to the report, we think it's incorrect," said Bruce Tanner of Lockheed Martin. government doesn't talk a whole lot about this, and neither do we. Lockheed Martin's chief financial officer denied that there was any breach of classified information, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. and BAE Systems PLC are major subcontractors in the plane's production. The Joint Strike Fighter's main contractor is Lockheed Martin Corp., and Northrop Grumman Corp. The plane uses stealth and other highly sensitive electronic equipment, but it does not appear that information on those systems was compromised, because it is stored on computers that are not connected to the Internet, according to the defense officials. However, the officials insisted that none of the information accessed was highly sensitive data. The information could be used to make the plane easier to fight or defend against.Īdditionally, the system used by the aircraft to conduct self-diagnostics during flight was compromised by the computer intrusions, according to the officials. Most of the files broken into focused on the design and performance statistics of the fighter, as well as its electronic systems, officials said. It designed to become the aircraft used by all of the branches of service. The Joint Striker Fighter plane is the military's new F-35 Lightning II. Once they got in, the Internet hackers were able to see such information as the locations of U.S. In addition to files relating to the aircraft, hackers gained entry into the Air Force's air traffic control systems, according to the officials. The Internet intruders were able to gain access to data related to the design and electronics systems of the Joint Strike Fighter through computers of Pentagon contractors in charge of designing and building the aircraft, according to the officials, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
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