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Pentagon Spends $100M in 6 Months on Cyber-Attacks

by Peter Mychalcewycz on April 9, 2009 at 08:37 AM



Traditionally, modern warfare has been thought about in terms of bombs and bullets. Ladies and gentlemen, that is an antiquated concept of international conflict.

According to CBS News, the Pentagon has spent over $100 million in the last six months defending the United States against repeated attacks on the Pentagon and military bases around the country. You don't often hear about these types of attacks. You don't hear about them because they are cyber-attacks, and, while they usually don't grab headlines, they are ever-present and cost a ton of money to repel. Army Brigadier General John Davis, who serves as deputy commander for network operations, told CBS that the millions went towards manpower and computer technology. Contractors responsible for resolving breaches due to internal mishaps and cyber-espionage also contributed to the costs.

Head of U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force General Kevin Chilton, explained to CBS, "The important thing is that we recognize that we are under assault from the least sophisticated... all the way up to the sophisticated nation-state, with some criminal elements sandwiched in-between," adding, "This is indeed our big challenge, as we think about how to defend it."



According to the Pentagon, the vast computer network under its supervision is scanned and/or probed by outsiders millions of times each day. With that in mind, we can certainly understand the Pentagon's spending such a large amount on this, the new face of international conflict. It may not be as morbidly glamorous as traditional battle, but, it seems, it's just as necessary. [From: CBS News]

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Tags: cyber attack, CyberAttack, defense, hack, pentagon, security, terrorism

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