They claim the attacker:

“used sophisticated hacking tools to gain unauthorized access to government and commercial systems.”

The accused person, Razvan Manole Cernaianu, allegedly also attempted to sell the secrets of how to gain access to the servers online. Organized crime prosecutors are cooperating with the FBI and officials at NASA in order to pursue the case.

While little has been revealed in the way of details surrounding the attack, the company says it was able to act quickly and protect critical data. Lockheed Martin released the following statement:

On Saturday, May 21, Lockheed Martin detected a significant and tenacious attack on its information systems network. The company’s information security team detected the attack almost immediately, and took aggressive actions to protect all systems and data. As a result of the swift and deliberate actions taken to protect the network and increase IT security, our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 126,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation’s 2010 sales from continuing operations were $45.8 billion.

Lt Col April Cunningham, is quoted as speaking on behalf of the Defense Department, saying the impact on the Pentagon was “minimal and we don’t expect any adverse effect.”

Today, it’s being reported that the Pentagon has now decided that cyber attacks can be considered acts of war – a subject that will be addressed in its cyber strategy, which will be made public ( in part) in June. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Pentagon’s first formal cyber strategy, unclassified portions of which are expected to become public next month, represents an early attempt to grapple with a changing world in which a hacker could pose as significant a threat to U.S. nuclear reactors, subways or pipelines as a hostile country’s military.

In part, the Pentagon intends its plan as a warning to potential adversaries of the consequences of attacking the U.S. in this way. “If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks,” said a military official.

Less than half of the cyber strategy will actually be available for public consumption, according to the report. That is, I assume, if they can manage to keep it off Wikileaks.

The subject of cyber attack as an act of war will no doubt see plenty of heated debate in the months to come, but it is clear that recent events have made the subject a much more critical one for discussion and solution.

On a semi-related note, PBS had its site hacked on Sunday, after the airing of a documentary about Bradley Manning (discussed here) as a nod to Wikileaks and Anonymous.

 Google Street View

The driver of a Street View car was given access to the Fort Sam Houston base after telling a base official that Google would not photograph or videotape on the premises.  The official thought an online map would be helpful to visitors.

When the photos appeared on Google Maps, the Pentagon contacted Google and asked that they be removed. Google took down the images within 24 hours. Gary Ross, spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, said the photos posted on the Web could be a security threat.

"We don’t have any issues regarding Google and their products, which are very useful tools," Ross told the L.A. Times. "But the Street View provides clear imagery of control points, barriers, headquarters and security facilities that pose a risk to our force-protection efforts."

Google spokesman Larry Yu said the Street View driver violated Google’s strict policy of not going onto military bases and private property. "Against our policy, we did mistakenly access the base," Yu said.
 

YouTube Guys Call BS On Pentagon

Bandwidth concerns have driven the Pentagon to drop the hammer on some video and social networking sites. That decision has prompted disappointment from soldiers and derision from a skeptical DC press corps.

A military spokesperson ended up being grilled over the bandwidth question by reporters. The Washington Post said Rear Admiral Elizabeth A. Hight, vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, stuck to the Pentagon’s assertion that bandwidth usage was the sole reason to shut down access to those sites.

Reporters asked if that usage had ever jeopardized operations, and were told it had not. The decision to block access to these heavily used websites was a “proactive” one, Hight said, due to the growing demands created by the likes of video and other sites.

YouTube’s top executives aren’t convinced by the military’s explanation. “They said it might be a bandwidth issue, but they created the Internet, so I don’t know what the problem is,” company CEO Chad Hurley said in an AP report. The company is trying to work with the Pentagon to find a solution to the access ban.

Pentagon Channel Coming To A Webcast Near You

The Department of Defense probably isn’t going to put CNN out of business with its cable, satellite, and now webcast of the Pentagon Channel. What it does offer is a 24/7 look at the news and interviews the military generates.

A 24-hour day breaks up into 30-minute programming blocks. Armed Forces Network news from different regions has been sprinkled throughout a typical day, along with looks at news about each branch of the military. Podcasts of the Pentagon Channel can be found online too.

One program, Freedom Journal Iraq, specifically focuses on the military mission in Iraq. There is also a bi-weekly news report created in Mosul, Iraq called The Stallion Report and created by the Army’s 355th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.

A sample of interviews listed on the site’s home page include several Pentagon briefings conducted for reporters. One briefing features Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield and his UK counterpart, John Reid, speaking with the press; another briefing from southeastern Iraq discusses ongoing security operations there.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.

The auction will last for 10 days, ending on September 16, and will include what are described as 14 sports, political and luxury packages.

Among the packages are luxury Indy 500 tickets, U2 tickets, football tickets, International Spy Museum tickets, and dinners including one with a former CIA and FBI director.

“This auction gives us the opportunity to raise awareness about the Pentagon Memorial and encourage people to donate,” said Pentagon Memorial Fund President James Laychak.

The Pentagon Memorial Fund has set a goal of raising $18 million, and believes that will achieve half of this during this fall. So far, the fund has relied on traffic to its website.

The Memorial itself, which is currently being designed, will be built at the crash-site. Construction of the Memorial Park is scheduled to begin next year.

Chris is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.

The “trauma pod” will be designed to use robots to perform surgeries on soldiers who are wounded on the battlefield.

The first phase of the program is an effort to develop robotic technology to perform a totally unmanned surgical procedure within a fixed facility. When fully developed, the Trauma Pod will not require human medical personnel on-site to conduct the surgery, and will be small enough to be carried by a medical ground or air vehicle. A human surgeon will conduct all the required surgical procedures from a remote location using a system of surgical manipulators. The system’s actions are then communicated wirelessly to the surgery site. Automated robotic systems will provide necessary support to the surgeon to conduct all phases of the operation.

The program will leverage substantial technology and expertise from a team of leading companies. SRI, an independent research and development organization, will serve as lead systems integrator on the collaborative project. The team includes:

– SRI International, developer of pioneering telesurgery systems

– General Dynamics Robotic Systems, a leader in unmanned ground vehicle systems and developer of the automated pharmacy system

– Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a leader in weapons and material handling robotics

– University of Texas, a research leader in software control systems for material disposal and space manipulators

– University of Washington, a research leader in surgical robotics

– University of Maryland, a research leader in Operating Room of the Future

– Robotic Surgical Tech, Inc., developers of the first robotic nurse systems for the operating room

The team held a kick-off meeting at the “Medicine Meets Virtual Reality” conference in Long Beach, California, on January 26-29, 2005.

“SRI is excited about working with the team to innovate and apply its interdisciplinary technical skills, rigorous approach to system integration, and comprehensive testing and demonstration abilities to tackle the challenge of developing a functional system,” said Scott Seaton, executive director of SRI’s Engineering and Systems Division. “The result will be a major step forward in saving lives on the battlefield. SRI has a long history of meeting our nation’s defense needs, and this program continues in that tradition.”

The Trauma Pod program is funded by DARPA through the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC), a subordinate element of the U.S. Army Research and Materiel Command.

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