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[IP] more on Chinese hackers





Begin forwarded message:

From: Ross Stapleton-Gray <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: November 27, 2005 6:00:04 PM EST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Chinese hackers

At 02:43 PM 11/27/2005, David Wagner wrote:
SIPRNET (the military's private network for SECRET data) is not "JUST AS VULNERABLE" as the Internet. That's probably partly because SIPRNET is
administered more carefully -- but the fact that SIPRNET is not
connected to the Internet anywhere also helps.

But the SIPRNET does, in some fashion, connect to the Internet. Here, for example, the Marines are making SIPRNET connections via tunnel over NIPRNET:
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1209/tec-tunnel-12-09-02.asp
"The Marine Corps is reducing the time and expense of connecting staff at multiple locations to the Defense Department's secure network by using a technique known as tunneling, which lets users traverse a nonsecure network to access a top-secret one..."
And the NIPRNET in turn connects to the Internet.

(It may be that the security of such a tunnel or VPN is solid against threats to confidentiality, BUT... the Marines now have a SECRET- level network whose *availability* depends on a less secure network. Something to think about.)

There are also relatively robust one-way gates, to allow for the intake of information from lower-level systems; one could presumably connect the raw Internet to the TOP SECRET-flavor of Intelink, say, using a "data diode" such as Tenix is marketing: http://www.gcn.com/ 24_30/security/37212-1.html

Ross


----
Ross Stapleton-Gray, Ph.D.
Stapleton-Gray & Associates, Inc.
http://www.stapleton-gray.com
http://www.sortingdoor.com





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