US weapons systems can be ‘easily hacked’
From the BBC, Oct. 11, 2018
Some of the most cutting-edge weapons in the US’s military arsenal can be “easily hacked” using “basic tools”, a government report has concluded. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found “mission-critical” cyber-vulnerabilities in nearly all weapons systems tested between 2012 and 2017. That includes the newest F-35 jet as well as missile systems. In the report, Pentagon officials said they “believed their systems were secure”, NPR reported. The committee’s members expressed concerns about how protected weapon systems were against cyber-attacks.
The report’s main findings were:
-the Pentagon did not change the default passwords on multiple weapons systems – and one changed password was guessed in nine seconds
-a team appointed by the GAO was able to easily gain control of one weapons system and watch in real time as the operators responded to the hackers
-it took another two-person team only one hour to gain initial access to a weapons system and one day to gain full control
many of the test teams were able to copy, change or delete system data with one team downloading 100 gigabytes of information
The GAO added that the Pentagon “does not know the full scale of its weapons system vulnerabilities”.
