Forwarded From: Brook Powers <lwpowers@dis.org>
Hackers Hit U.S. Military Computers
By Janelle Carter
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, June 6, 1998; 4:39 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hackers entered U.S. Army computers last week and
altered a command's Web site, an Army spokesman said Saturday. Days
earlier, computer rebels claimed to have entered India's national security
computer network and stolen sensitive nuclear weapons secrets. They said
in an interview with the online magazine Wired News that they also altered
a World Wide Web site there.
Asked about a possible connection between the two incidents, Army
spokesman Gerry Gilmore told The Associated Press, ``If you're hacking,
you can go through different routes. Evidently they went through some Army
organization's computers.''
Later, however, Gilmore refused further comment about whether the hackers
used the Army access to enter the Indian government computers. He referred
further questions to the Defense Department. Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner
said only that ``the appropriate authorities are looking into it.''
Both the FBI and the Army were investigating the matter, officials said.
The six hackers -- who call themselves the MilwOrm Group, said they are
15-18 years old and hail from the United States, England, the Netherlands
and New Zealand -- claimed to have accessed electronic mail messages sent
between India's nuclear scientists and Israeli government officials as
well as downloaded sensitive documents. They also altered the Web site of
the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, the nerve center of India's nuclear
programs, they said in the online interview.
The Indian government vehemently denied on Friday that the breach resulted in
the loss of sensitive information, saying the hackers only accessed e-mail
messages of scientists and the web site.
``Recent access by hackers has been only to e-mail messages of scientists
and BARC home page information, and the connections for these are isolated
from all other computers used at BARC and obviously do not contain any
sensitive information,'' said S. Narendra, principal spokesman for the
government of India, reading a release from BARC officials.
Gilmore said the hackers apparently got into the Army's computers Thursday
through its Dental Command system at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. ``The home
page, the title page, was altered,'' Gilmore said. ``The server was shut
down upon discovery. It's been secured.''
Gilmore would not elaborate on the type of information the hackers gained
or if U.S. security was compromised.
A Web site called AntiOnline began posting Saturday what it said were
samples of data stolen from the Bombay research center's computers.
AntiOnline said it had received the information from the hackers.
The hackers said they were angry about last month's nuclear tests
conducted by India and Pakistan. President Clinton warned during
commencement ceremonies last month at the U.S. Naval Academy that the
United States is increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attack. He called for
strengthening the nation's computer defenses and ordered an assessment to
plan against such attacks.
-o-
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Received on Sun Jun 7 15:14:49 1998