Flash drive led to US cyber attack

The most significant breach of US military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a US military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.

The most significant breach of US military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a US military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008.

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In an article to be published on Wednesday discussing the Pentagon's cyberstrategy, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says malicious code placed on the drive by a foreign intelligence agency uploaded itself onto a network run by the US military's Central Command.

“That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems, establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be

transferred to servers under foreign control,” he says in the Foreign Affairs article.

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