Hackers Breach Security at Major U.S. Labs

In a major development that has raised concerns about security for American military laboratories, hackers managed to hack into the computer systems of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, two of the most vital scientific labs in the United States.

While some details are available about the attack on the Oak Ridge lab, not much is known about the attack on the Los Alamos facility. This lab is considered a sister institution of the one at Oak Ridge. Scientists believe the two attacks are interlinked, though there is not enough information to confirm the attack on the Los Alamos facility was totally successful.

Even though there is no official word to the effect that the attack on the Los Alamos lab was successful, there are pointers that indicate this to be the case. For instance, a lab spokesman earlier said the staff had received information about an attempted breach on November 9, which was just a few days after the attacks at the Oak Ridge facility.

One can surmise that the notification could only mean that the attack had been successful, and that there had been attacks on other laboratories across the U.S. as well. There is no information yet, however, on whether the hackers had targeted other laboratories across the United States as well.

An Oak Ridge spokesman said the attacks occurred in the form of phishing e-mails with malicious attachments that the hackers sent to the e-mail ids of personnel working at the lab. The general assumption currently is that these attachments, if opened, would have resulted in the release of Trojans that had the ability to sidestep all the security systems in place at the lab internally. The first wave of attacks started on October 29.

Describing the attack on the Oak Ridge laboratory as a ‘sophisticated cyber attack’, a lab spokesman said the hackers had gained access to a database the lab maintained about visitors to the lab between 1990 and 2004. The visitors’ information on the database included vital data such as their birth dates and social security numbers.

Thom Mason, the director of the Oak Ridge lab, said the hacking attempt as a ‘coordinated attempt to gain access to computer networks at numerous laboratories and other institutions across the country.’ He said the lab could not give out any more details about the attacks for a while, till they were able to understand exactly what the attack was all about, as the whole matter was of a highly sensitive nature.

What makes the hacking of the Oak Ridge lab computers all the more worrisome is the fact that about 3,000 people visit the lab each year, and the visitors’ list here makes up literally the who’s who of the U.S. science community.

The Oak Ridge lab serves multiple purposes. This science laboratory specifically dabbles in military research, and is where the technological expertise that the homeland security people use originates. It also is home to one of the fastest supercomputers in the whole world.
The Los Alamos lab is another multipurpose lab, though its area of specialization is specifically research in nuclear weapons. Currently it is one of only two labs in the U.S. working on an issue of such a highly sensitive nature.

However, over the years, security at Los Alamos has become somewhat of a laughing matter, with a number of security breaches being recorded over the past few years. As recently as August this year, the lab apparently released highly sensitive data related to nuclear research over e-mail. Again, in 2006, a USB data stick with information on nuclear weapons tests had been recovered from a drug dealer.

The latest attack is another blot on the security apparatus at Los Alamos. What is more worrying probably is the fact that the two attacks on the two different facilities could be part of one coherent and cohesive plan possibly involving a rival government. Another possibility, all the more worrying, is that the theft of data could merely be a cover for something much more serious.