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Mexican hackers got to Pentagon in 1998, U.S. official says

BERLIN (March 12, 2000 10:06 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Mexican Zapatista guerrillas managed to hack into the Pentagon's Web site in 1998 using computers on the Frankfurt stock exchange, a U.S. official told a German magazine.

"The rebel Zapatistas attacked the Pentagon site in 1998," said Arthur L. Money in an interview published in the latest edition of the German weekly Focus. Money is the chief information officer of the Defense Department.

"Using computers on the Frankfurt stock exchange, they managed to hack into the ... computer system," he said.

"That, for me, is a flagrant example that such attacks can be carried out anywhere."

He said the Pentagon was working to secure certain computer systems that, until now, had not justified security measures.

"For example, the computer system of a military hospital could be broken into by hackers, who could change the data on blood groups.

"You can imagine the consequences.

"So now we realize that we have to develop security for networks that, up until now, were accessible."

http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/0,1643,500179791-500236658-501166899-0,00.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 13, 2000