What are all these Russian hackers up to?

CPT Jack Durish The US has been probed by outside actors for quite awhile. They seem to have more success lately than in previous years. This got me to thinking, what has changed?
Here is a thought to ponder. A NSA system administrator, absconds with a bunch of information and goes into exile in Russia. What is NSA? Here is the official NSA mission statement:

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) leads the U.S. Government in cryptology that encompasses both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA) products and services, and enables Computer Network Operations (CNO) in order to gain a decision advantage for the Nation and our allies under all circumstances.

As the premier US agency regarding cyber security, I would guess that they have detailed information about the protections and counter measures in place protecting the governments networks. Could it be that some of the information that was stolen from the NSA was the cyber defense employed to protect US networks. If that information was handed over to Russia, could this explain how/why there have been more penetrations into US networks of late?

LTC (Join to see) - My last assignment in the Army was as Operations Officer at a Strategic Communications Center. We were the first to successfully computerize AUTODIN terminal operations (previously teletype). NSA was all over us like fur on a cat. They found security breaches where we never suspected them. For example, a bell wire running from our tunnel entrance to the duty officer's work station was used to signal the officer if someone important was coming and he should wake up. The bell and button had been removed but the wire remained, acting like an antenna picking up RF from the computers and transmitting them outside the tunnel. We even had to remove a toilet from a bathroom near the computer room because it too was acting like an antenna and transmitting RF along a sewer line to an NSA van parked outside the post. The NSA technicians had a saying: "Anything I can do, Ivan can do". I wasn't sure I believed them then, but I do now. Once upon a time we had an advantage. Our children were playing with computers when Russian children were playing with sticks and stones. However, children all over the world are now programming television systems and computers for their parents (like you and me). Sadly, we still act like we have some kind of an advantage. While still working, I visited many clients and hacked into their networks while waiting for appointments. They became offended when I warned them and I learned to keep my mouth shut. Let me give you an example... One very large multi-national company had employees attaching wireless transceivers to their workstations so they could work from their laptops anywhere in the building. These unauthorized "accessories" had no security. I could drive around the building picking up countless insecure WiFi connections to the company network. I had to spend a lot of time fighting with their network administrators on another issue as well. Although they were using Lotus Notes for email, the most secure email system then available, they had disabled most of its security features because those features created too much work for them when users forgot passwords or wanted changes made to their Notes applications. Yes, we are vulnerable, very vulnerable and its not going to get better until every one, every user, as well as every administrator and manager takes security seriously. IT governance is one of the most important and least understood aspects of modern business and government.

COL Mikel J. Burroughs Many years ago I was having a conversation with a friend who was a programmer for a big software company, we were discussing viruses. He said something about everything we've seen to date has been amateurs, kids playing. Not being a programmer, I didn't understand his logic. He explained some of the twist and turns that he could put into a program (virus) to make it undetectable by antivirus software.

I suspect that if we were to employ good programmers with the task of gaining access to or destroying a particular network that there would be no system safe.

LTC (Join to see) - War on computers and with electronics is going to be the wave of the future in my opinion and I believe it will cost the enemy a lot of losses if worked properly through deception and misdirection, and bringing entire infrastructures down with a push of a button! That goes both ways too, so we had better ne smarter than our enemies! Just an opinion my friend!

COL Mikel J. Burroughs - I agree with you, there are so many things connected to the Internet with minimal or no security that the basic infrastructure if at risk. My only real concern with this new battlefield is getting senior officials that understand it well enough to develop ROE that will work. We are developing defensive forces, but are we developing the offensive capabilities that we would need to dominate this realm.

SFC George Smith Whatever they can get away with, interesting choice of words. What do you think the consequence should be for hacking a government computer system should be?