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Attacks on Federal Computers Increase by 40%

by Lee Bains on February 21, 2009 at 04:03 PM


Last year, the federal government's computer systems saw a 40-percent increase in cyberattacks, reports USA Today.

From 2007 to 2008, reported incidents of attacks on governmental computer systems rose from 3,928 to 5,488, according to a report by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team. While these numbers could conceivably be a result of more thorough tracking techniques, Joel Brenner of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence conceded to USA Today, "We're seeing ... a dramatic, consistent increase in cyber crime (and) intelligence activities." Still, only 1-percent of federal entities are equipped with up-to-date tracking methods.

While some of these cyberattacks are likely to have been perpetrated by foreign spies, according to Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, many of them likely spring from criminal entities, wishing to wreak havoc on the government rather than learn about its workings. In response to these reports, President Obama has launched an assessment of federal systems security. Maybe he can kill two birds with one stone and, for the assessment, hire on those certainly unemployed hackers that broke into the government's employment site. [From: USA Today]

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Tags: cyber attack, CyberAttack, cybercrime, federal government, FederalGovernment, hack, national security, NationalSecurity, obama, security

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