As news reports are pouring in that all those computing devices manufactured in China and imported to countries like US and UK are having spying tendencies, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) decided to audit all its computer networks including that of the Pentagon. This includes all IT equipment operating in the server farms of government agencies which includes server chips
The audit conducted between Sept 2017 and Oct 2018 which includes a special scale review by a third party in September 2018 has discovered that most of the systems related to the department of defense are vulnerable to cyber attacks.
But the good news is that the US government under the supervision of Trump administration is doing its best in strengthening the weapons systems from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
As China has become the top most country surpassing Russia in state sponsoring cyber attacks on the West, the latest report from the audit cell looks encouraging.
Crowdstrike released a security report yesterday saying China was now ahead of Russia as the most prolific National state mounting attacks on public and private entities, educational institutions, think tanks and NGOs operating in the west.
The analysis of the security firm after inspecting thousands of cyber attacks in the first six months of this year has revealed that China has developed a penchant to steal commercial, defense, and technological secrets in order to become a superpower nation in next five years.
For this reason, the nation is said to be launching sophisticated attacks to breach defense lines of western countries in order to hack companies by inducing Trojan Horses into their databases and sending Phishing emails to senior executives.
The latest audit conducted by GAO says that China now has the potential to turn on weapons on or off, influence missile targeting, adjust oxygen levels in submarines or manipulate what controllers see on their computer screens in any country operating in the west. This includes nations like US, Canada, and the UK.
GAO cited in its reports that most the problems can be sorted out by strengthening passwords, securing communication lines and by deploying qualified cybersecurity staff in all the departments related to Defense.
