Cyber Attackers Steal Info on Pentagon’s Latest Fighter Jet

By Diane Smith
14:31, April 22nd 2009
Cyber Attackers Steal Info on Pentagon’s Latest Fighter Jet

The cyber attacks in Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program did not cause major security breaches, according to a joint statement from the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin, the lead contractor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Cyber attackers managed to hack their way into the Pentagon computer system and steal some information about the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter. According to a Wall Street Journal, the information that was stolen in the cyber attack could be used by adversaries develop and install defense systems against the radar-evading fighter jet. However, the most important data about the new fighter jet was not stole, officials said. The information that was not stolen was stored in computers that were not connected to the Internet.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, in an interview with Reuters, said hat he was not aware of “any specific concerns” that the cyber attack compromised sensitive information about the costly project.

The hackers were apparently from Russia and China, the Wall Street Journal reports. This cyber attack comes just a few weeks after hackers from the same countries managed to hack the United States electrical grid. Of course, the Chinese government has denied any involvement in the attacks, but most experts and officials said the Chinese were definitely behind them.

It is not sure yet how the hackers managed to infiltrate the system and steal information. According to the WSJ report, the hackers most likely used the vulnerabilities of the system to penetrate the networks of the contractors involved in building the fighter jet.