pentagon

A 20-year-old Romanian has been arrested on charges of hacking into Pentagon and NASA servers, stealing confidential data, and posting it on his personal blog, according to a statement today from the Romanian prosecutors office.

Razvan Manole Cernaianu, an information technology student who allegedly used the online alias "TinKode," offered a software program for sale on his blog and also showed a video that demonstrated how he compromised the servers, officials said.

Romanian officials said they were working with the FBI and NASA representatives on the case. An FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C., did not immediately have … Read more

With last week's release of floor plans for Apple's proposed Cupertino, Calif., campus reboot, we finally got details on the interior bits of the complex Apple hopes to have finished by 2015. We also have a better idea of how enormous the main building, which will hold some 12,000 employees, will really be.

Over at The Mac Observer, John Martellaro has done the math on the size of the main campus, which up until last week was depicted only in renderings. His findings? The finished building will be ever so slightly larger than the Pentagon.

Using measurements … Read more

The Pentagon today elaborated on its plans to defend privately-owned Internet servers owned by banks, transportation and utility companies, and other key firms from electronic attacks, a proposal that has raised privacy concerns in the past.

"Our assessment is that cyberattacks will be a significant component of any future conflict, whether it involves major nations, rogue states, or terrorist groups," William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said during a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

To illustrate the sophistication of such attacks, Lynn said a foreign government was behind a cyberattack in March … Read more

For the U.S. government, the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan represents a unique opportunity to test advanced computer forensics techniques called "media exploitation" that it's developed over the last few years.

The military's acronym for the process is DOMEX, which one Army team in Iraq cheekily sums up with this motto: "You check their pulse, we'll check their pockets."

The electronic gear hauled away by an assault team of Navy SEALs reportedly included five computers, 10 hard drives, and scores of removable media including USB sticks and DVDs. … Read more

Zynga could be worth $10 Billion dollars, which means more CityVille spin-offs. Apple's new subscription policies are getting the attention of U.S. antitrust enforcers, all we want to do is dance, dance, dance and mice might be the key for Brian to keep his hair well past his 60s. Plus, Computer Love! Awwwww Yeah.

SAN FRANCISCO-- A top Defense Department official said today that the U.S. military should "extend" a technological shield used to protect its own networks to important private sector computers as well, which could sweep in portions of the Internet and raise civil liberty concerns.

William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, proposed at the RSA Conference extending "the high level of protection afforded by active defenses to private networks that operate infrastructure" that's crucial to the military or the U.S. economy.

What Lynn refers to as "active defenses" were pioneered by … Read more

Will Courtney Love's lawyers argue that Twitter is just so fun and awesome that she can't be held responsible for defamatory crazy talk she types on it? If so, we're about to go crazy on Twitter. Also, Apple and News Corp may have pushed back their launch date for the Daily, BBC says no to Smart TV fragmentation, and why can't Samsung just give us our dang Froyo already? --Molly

The U.S. government indicated today that WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange could be in legal jeopardy for disclosing classified information because he is "not a journalist."

When asked whether "traditional media" organizations that republish secret documents could be prosecuted, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that the administration applauds "the role of journalists in your daily pursuits."

"In our view, Mr. Assange is not a journalist," Crowley added.

Crowley's remarks come as Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents are scrambling to piece together a legal case against Assange, who was … Read more

Forget China or Al Qaeda. In a twist that would have been inconceivable even a few months ago, the WikiLeaks.org Web site is being proposed as the first public target for a U.S. government cyberattack.

After the shadowy, document-leaking organization distributed nearly 400,000 classified documents from the Iraq war on Friday, Washington officialdom responded with a torrent of denunciations alleging violations of national security and endangering U.S. military operations.

In a rare point of congruence, The Washington Post and The Washington Times both criticized the release, with the smaller paper arguing that WikiLeaks' offshore Web site … Read more