Reuters has a followup to their scoop yesterday about an unspecified hacker attack involving Lockheed Martin, the world's biggest aerospace firm and the top US military supplier by sales: the DoD and the DHS are now involved, and confirm that a breach took place.
As reported yesterday, the Lockheed intrusion may be linked to the RSA SecurID breach disclosed two months ago. Reuters reports today:
The Department of Homeland Security said it and the Defense Department had offered to help gauge the scope of a "cyber incident impacting LMCO," as the maker of fighter jets, ships and other major weapons systems is known. The U.S. government also has offered to help analyze "available data in order to provide recommendations to mitigate further risk," Chris Ortman, a Homeland Security official, said in an e-mailed reply to a query from Reuters.
It was not immediately clear what kind of data, if any, was stolen by the hackers. But military contractors' networks contain sensitive data on arms that are under development as well as technology used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No word yet on whether other military contractors that also use RSA's SecurID system have experienced similar problems.
