Someone Somewhere Hacking USG Websites As July 4th Present

[Magda Hassan]

More reason to have that shiny new Cyber Command Central Full Spectrum Dominance wet dream come true.

Or it could be the US government wanting it to look like North Korea.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090709/ap_o...tack/print
US officials eye North Korea in cyber attack
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Lolita C. Baldor,
Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 9 mins ago
WASHINGTON ? U.S. authorities on Wednesday eyed North Korea as the
origin of the widespread cyber attack that overwhelmed government Web
sites in the United States and South Korea, although they warned it
would be difficult to definitively identify the attackers quickly.

The powerful attack that targeted dozens of government and private
sites underscored how unevenly prepared the U.S. government is to
block such multipronged assaults.

While Treasury Department and Federal Trade Commission Web sites were
shut down by the software attack, which lasted for days over the
holiday weekend, others such as the Pentagon and the White House were
able to fend it off with little disruption.

The North Korea link, described by three officials, more firmly
connected the U.S. attacks to another wave of cyber assaults that hit
government agencies Tuesday in South Korea. The officials said that
while Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does
not necessarily mean the attack involved the Pyongyang government.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

South Korea intelligence officials have identified North Korea as a
suspect in those attacks and said that the sophistication of the
assault suggested it was carried out at a higher level that just rogue
or individual hackers.

U.S. officials would not go that far and declined to discuss publicly
who may have instigated the intrusion or how it was done.

In an Associated Press interview, Philip Reitinger, deputy under
secretary at the Homeland Security Department, said the far-reaching
attacks demonstrate the importance of cybersecurity as a critical
national security issue.