By Shannon Tiezzi
A report by the Senate Armed Services Committee investigates Chinese cyber attacks against Transcom’s contractors.
Yesterday, the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. Senate (SASC) made public the results of its investigation into hacking activities targeting U.S. military contractors. The report, titled “Inquiry into Cyber Intrusions Affecting U.S. Transportation Command Contractors,” found that hackers sponsored by the Chinese government successfully accessed contractors’ computer systems “at least 20 times in a single year.” The total number of “cyber events” noted between June 1, 2012 and May 30, 2013 was around 50. Of the 20 successfully cyber intrusions, the report said that “all were attributed to China.”
The SASC report focused its investigation into cyber attacks on the U.S. Transportation Command, or Transcom, which (as the name implies) is responsible for the transportation of both troops and military supplies. According to the report, SASC chose to focus its investigation on Transcom “because of the central role that the command plays in mobilization, deployment, and sustainment operations and the critical capabilities that private companies contribute to Transcom’s ability to meet military requirements in contingencies.” In other words, Transcom is both vital to the military and uniquely vulnerable because of its reliance on private companies.
Private contractors, particularly those not involved in weapons-building projects, are far more vulnerable to cyber attacks than Pentagon networks. At the same time, Transcom is highly reliant on these civilian companies to carry out its mission. The report noted that commercial airlines carry more than 90 percent of U.S. troops and over one-third of military bulk cargo. Given these two facts, Transcom contractors make an attractive target for cyberattacks aimed at gathering information about or developing capabilities against the U.S. military. The unclassified version of the SASC report did not contain the names of any of the affected contractors.
Read the full story at The Diplomat