From: InfoSec News (isnC4I.ORG)
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 19:57:01 CDT

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/8/18137.html

By: Kevin Poulsen
Posted: 05/04/2001 at 22:12 GMT

The US military's ability to defend against cyber attacks is hampered
by a dearth of coordination among the armed services, and a poorly
implemented alert system, according to a new report by government
investigators.

The report, "Information Security -- Challenges to Improving DOD's
Incident Response Capabilities," was issued last week by the General
Accounting Office (GAO), Congress' investigative arm. It found the
Defense Department lacks a coordinated approach to ensuring that its
systems are patched against the latest software vulnerabilities, and
to conducting security assessments.

According to the report, the armed services performed over 150
computer security assessments last year, including some simulated hack
attacks by a National Security Agency (NSA) red team, and identified
hundreds of vulnerabilities in defense systems. But those audits were
not coordination and prioritized.

"Instead, vulnerability assessments are generally conducted only when
requested by component commanders or service-level audit agencies,"
reads the report. "There was no departmentwide process to identify
which systems or networks faced the greatest risks and therefore
should be assigned the highest priority for vulnerability
assessments."

The GAO audit was performed at the request of the Military Readiness
subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.

Investigators also found that logs from the 445 host-based and 647
network-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) in place on military
networks are not integrated and tracked together, a tactic that would
help the Pentagon spot coordinated attacks that touch a variety of
defense networks. "Because of the threat of these kinds of attacks, it
is increasingly important to collect intrusion data from as many
systems and sensors as possible," the report reads.

But in a response attached to the GAO report, the Defense Department
wrote that the Pentagon has a centralized system that is currently
receiving intrusion detection data from all the services: the Air
Force, Army and Navy. "While work remains to refine the process, the
database is in place and operating."

By its own figures, the Defense Department relies on over 2.5 million
unclassified computer systems on some 10,000 local area networks. The
GAO did not audit the Pentagon's procedures for securing classified
networks.

INFOCON flawed

The audit also found also found deficiencies in the Defense
Department's Information Operations Condition system, called INFOCON.

In the same way DEFCON establishes the military's overall defense
condition, INFOCON sets the level of alert for defense computer
networks, on a five-level scale ranging from 'normal' to 'INFOCON
DELTA' -- all out information warfare. The system was established in
1999 by the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

An overall INFOCON level is set by the Department of Defense, and
commanders are free to increase, but not decrease, the level locally.
But the system fails to define with particularity the appropriate
response to each threat level, the GAO found. "Inexperienced personnel
may overreact and implement drastic countermeasures, resulting in
self-inflicted problems, such as degraded system performance or
communication disruptions."

The flaws in the INFOCON system were evident when last year's
"ILOVEYOU" virus struck. First, it took the Defense Department several
hours to decide on an overall INFOCON level. Then individual
commanders "independently chose a variety of different levels and
responses," according to the GAO.

"For example, some commands made few changes to their daily
operational procedures, while others cut off all electronic mail
communications and thus became isolated from outside contact regarding
the status of the attack," reads the report.

In a written response attached to the report, Arthur Money, Defense
Department CIO and US Assistant Secretary of Defense for command,
control, communications and intelligence (C3I), largely concurred with
the report, and its recommendations that the Pentagon improve cyber
defense coordination, among other things.

"The [Defense] Department has made tremendous strides to improve our
overall information assurance posture," wrote Money, "but recognizes
the need to strengthen our posture and implement out Defense-in-Depth
Strategy. Your recommendations are very consistent with many of our
ongoing efforts."

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