Patterico's Pontifications

9/30/2012

Chinese Hackers Hack System Used for Nuclear Commands??

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:50 pm



Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon:

Hackers linked to China’s government broke into one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident.

One official said the cyber breach was one of Beijing’s most brazen cyber attacks against the United States and highlights a failure of the Obama administration to press China on its persistent cyber attacks.

I’m not familiar with the Washington Free Beacon and I’m wondering why the story is not appearing elsewhere (or is it?). If there is anything to this, however, it seems like a big story.

For now, though, color me skeptical.

Via Drudge.

11 Responses to “Chinese Hackers Hack System Used for Nuclear Commands??”

  1. Bill Gertz has been around however. His reputation for credibility can be debated – he runs higher credibility than most MSN to me – but he has some real scoops to his credit and mostly checks out. He has been reporting on China for a long time.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  2. Gertz was the Washington Times’s top national security reporter for many years. His and Eli Lake’s are two bylines I respect. Doesn’t mean he’s always right (nature of reporting).

    IF the Chinese (or anyone) did penetrate this system, DOD would NEVER confirm.

    Most DOD systems run Windows, are seldom updated, and are administered by very poorly trained junior enlisted script monkeys, so systems get penetrated all the time. There is a hierarchy of admins though, and SIOP stuff is as well guarded as they can do (given the limits imposed by the DOD IT bureaucracy).

    Kevin R.C. O'Brien (c3a6c5)

  3. Gertz has been a media fellow at Hoover, and he’s also written for Weekly Standard, National Review, and authored a number of books. If I recall, Bush 43’s nickname for him was “Stretch,” because he’s like 6’7″ or something.

    The Free Beacon is an online-only (no fish wraps or bird-cage liner !) publication that was founded earlier this year by Matthew Continetti, who was an editor at The Weekly Standard. Continetti is married to Bill Kristol’s daughter.

    Elephant Stone (65d289)

  4. Correction…journalist Bill Sammon is the guy who Bush 43 used to call “Stretch.”

    Elephant Stone (65d289)

  5. Ditto, about Lake, he should get a Pulitzer for his reporting on Benghazi, now will he?

    narciso (ee31f1)

  6. __________________________________________

    I’m wondering why the story is not appearing elsewhere

    Probably because it’s definitely not true. Not possible in the least. The White House (and the MSM) certainly would tell us otherwise. Uh-huh, yea, yep, most undoubtedly.

    Meanwhile — and due to the trustworthy, reliable and impartial MSM — I’m still under the impression that the American consulate in Libya was attacked not because of a carefully arranged act of terrorism but because of impromptu anger triggered at the last minute by an obscure anti-Islam video posted to Youtube. Yep, uh-huh.

    Mark (6d5e0d)

  7. I have been reading the Washington Free Beacon for some time now. I hit it at least once per day. I find their stories to be generally well sourced and well written. I would rate them higher than, say, WND. I would rank them along with Daily Caller.

    crosspatch (6adcc9)

  8. If Bill Gertz says it happened, it happened. He doesn’t speak often, but he *always* has reliable sourcing.

    At least for the last 15 years that I’ve been aware of him.

    Does that help in a completely non-helpful way?

    Symphony (6aa93e)

  9. The Free Beacon is excellent. Matthew Continetti is the editor and the name comes from Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address that described America as a beacon to the world.

    Also … the White House has confirmed the report is true, although they claim it only affected unclassified data. Shorter White House: Nothing to see here. Move along.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  10. Why isn’t that an act of war?

    BradnSA (980254)

  11. BradnSA, because we have a Democrat in office.

    SPQR (26be8b)


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