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Overview[]

Moonlight Maze, a cyber attack targeting the Pentagon, was discovered in 1999 and believed to be undertaken by expert hackers from the Russian Academy of Sciences (a government-supported body that has close links to the Russian military). According to reports, they broke into DoD computer networks and extracted information that may have included classified naval codes and data on missile-guidance systems.

Tens of thousands of files, including military maps, U.S. troop configurations, military hardware designs, and naval codes were reportedly compromised.[1]

The hackers, who also targeted the Department of Energy (DOE), military contractors, and military-linked civilian universities, exploited U.S. defensive measures to gain virtually undetected access to a variety of networks, including root level access to some systems.

DoD officials described the intrusions, which occurred as a series of attacks over a two year period, as sophisticated, patient, and persistent.

References[]

External resources[]

  • Ben Macintyre, "Cyber-war Russians Hack Into Military Secrets, The Times (London) (Sept. 13, 1999) (full-text).
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