Virus Blows a Hole in NATO's Security

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Daily News Virus Blows a Hole in NATO's Security By Steve Gold, Newsbytes April 04, 2000

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched a full-scale investigation into how one of its top-secret documents ended up posted on the Internet.

The Sunday Telegraph reports that an unknown virus is to blame for the posting of the nine-page document, detailing the alliance's rules of engagement in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo, on to the Net.

Press reports this morning say that NATO moved into full swing over the weekend after the British Ministry of Defence was alerted to the problem late last week.

The Sunday Telegraph said that the top secret document was spotted by a London publishing house and reported to the relevant authority. BBC news reports today, meanwhile, say that a virus may be to blame.

NATO's Brussels headquarters said that a press briefing for the media is expected later today. The Sunday Telegraph, meanwhile, quotes Jamie Shea, a senior spokesperson for NATO, as saying that, if the investigation shows that a NATO document has got into the public domain, "it will be a matter of great concern to us."

He added, "These are sensitive NATO documents. We would like to keep them classified and prevent them being compromised."

Newsbytes' sources say that the document posted to the Net included NATO's Rules of Engagement for Land Operations, which cover the circumstances under which "appropriate measures, including the use of deadly force," may be used.

The Sunday Telegraph quotes an unnamed person at the London Publishing company as saying that two people tried to open up a new document on a PC and, instead, the NATO Kosovo document started to scroll up.

"The next thing I knew, I was in a meeting around lunchtime when a message came from reception saying, `Your guests have arrived.'"

On returning to work, the member of staff was interviewed by two military intelligence officers in plain clothes, who said words to the effect of, "'This is something we are very worried about,' and started to ask questions."

Newsbytes' sources suggest that the NATO document was top secret classified material, but the classification was changed to "restricted" over the weekend to prevent further embarrassment.

Sources also suggest that the document was posted to a Usenet group, but was quickly deleted by a Ministry of Defence autobot, a software agent that autodeletes questionable Usenet postings from the servers of Usenet-enabled Internet service providers (ISPs) around the world.

Graham Cluley, head of corporate communications with Sophos Anti- Virus, was not surprised by the reports that a virus is to blame for the NATO security breach.

He pointed to worm payloads such as the infamous Melissa virus as indicative of how easy it is to trigger an Internet posting without the permission of the host PC operator.

"These latest security breaches highlight that no one is immune to security scares in any form," he said, adding that, if NATO can be hit by a virus, "then it should serve as a salutary reminder to all of us that we all need to be vigilant against computer crime and ensure the deployment of quality, up-to-date anti-virus and encryption software.

"In this particular case, NATO has suffered an embarrassment, but viruses like Melissa have already shown us how it is possible for a virus to pass on confidential material to thousands via just a few hops in an e-mail address book," he said.

"Perhaps more troubling though, is the fact that these viruses appear to be causing much more serious harm than a virus whose payload is a playful cartoon or Dr. Who quote," he added.

http://currents.net/newstoday/00/04/04/news3.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 04, 2000


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