17 June 2018

Report “China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare” (1) published on 8 June 2018 in the Washington Post is really worth reading.

Attacks on the supply chain have become more common in recent years. Contractors are e.g. used as gateways to the customer network or customer information is exfiltrated from the contractors network.

The latter is the case here. The product development is outsourced. The information required for product development is available only in the contractors network and, in the worst case, remains there after handover to the customer.

Under normal conditions this is not critical. But when it comes to national security matters, e.g. in product development for defense agencies or for critical infrastructures, this may end in a catastrophe.

Picture credits: Wikimedia

In such cases proper classification of the information handed over to and created by the contractor is of crucial need. Since many contractors run an information security management system, the selection of protective measures is based upon the proper classification.

At least 614 GB of data were obviously not properly classified since “highly sensitive data related to undersea warfare” was stolen from the contractor’s unclassified network.

It is always good to remember Aristotle’s proverb “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” when it comes to classification of information.

Have a great week.

1. Nakashima E, Sonne P. China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare. Washington Post [Internet]. 2018 Jun 8 [cited 2018 Jun 16]; Available from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/china-hacked-a-navy-contractor-and-secured-a-trove-of-highly-sensitive-data-on-submarine-warfare/2018/06/08/6cc396fa-68e6-11e8-bea7-c8eb28bc52b1_story.html