Information Warfare: May 20, 2002

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The U.S. Army is making progress in protecting it's 1.5 million PCs from hackers. In 2000, 1.16 percent of hacker attacks were successful. Last year, only .67 percent succeeded and so far this year the hacker success rate is even lower. The Army's solution was a combination of more attention from the brass (the Army Chief of Staff is briefed daily on the situation), keeping track of vulnerabilities (via the IAVA, or Information Assurance Vulnerability Alerts system) and more training for the army's computer users. The army also uses a team of it's own hackers to continuously test its security systems, as well as using new software to monitor intrusion attempts. The Army has also leaning on Microsoft to improve the security of the operating systems and applications software Microsoft supplies to the Army. Despite all this, the Army still considers itself vulnerable to a determined attack. Exactly how vulnerable, they won't say. But at least the Army is aware of the problem and trying to do something about it.

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