Pentagon targeted by Russian hack attack

An advanced level of cyber war has been detected where Russia was targeting the unclassified email system at the Pentagon's Joint Staff, according to a number of reports on Thursday.

The "sophisticated cyber intrusion" happened around July 25 and "affected some 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff," according to a report at CNBC online.

NBC cited its "sources" to explain, "It appears the cyberattack relied on some kind of automated system that rapidly gathered massive amounts of data and within a minute distributed all the information to thousands of accounts on the Internet. The officials also report the suspected Russian hackers coordinated the sophisticated cyberassault via encrypted accounts on social media."

It's not the first, nor the largest, hacking attack in recent weeks and months.

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But officials described, "It was clearly the work of a state actor."

U.S. officials said they shut the system down when the threat was detected and the system is expected to be operating again soon.

According to the Hill, officials confirmed that no classified networks were breached.

"The digital intrusion is possibly tied to a Russian hacking group, known as APT29, that was recently profiled in a report from security firm FireEye," the report said.

The report also said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter revealed only weeks ago Russian hackers had reached the department's networks briefly.

WND reported, too, that the Internal Revenue Service confirmed recent hacks led to more than 100,000 files coming into the hands of Russian criminal operatives.

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In 2012, the IRS mailed out 655 tax refunds to an address in Lithuania, and another 343 to a single address in Shanghai, AP reported.

This latest IRS hack happened at an IRS site entitled "Get Transcript," which gives filers access to old returns. So far, the hackers have used the information they accessed to claim $50 million in fraudulent tax returns, AP said.

That reports of hacking have become more and more alarming recently is evident.

WND reported that a breach at the Office of Personnel Management, considered the largest cyber attack ever to successfully reach inside a U.S. government computer network, probably revealed the names, Social Security numbers and other data for millions.

First, the agency reported an estimated 4.2 million federal employees had their information compromised. Then they said a second breach probably was even worse.

At a recent hearing before the Senate subcommittee on financial services and general government, OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said she was not yet prepared to say how many people were compromised in the second breach. Some media outlets reported that as many as another 10 million Americans could have had their IDs stolen.

"This separate breach continues to be investigated by OPM and our investigative partners," Archuleta said. "There was a high degree of compromise related to current, former and prospective government employees and any of those for whom a federal background investigation may have been conducted."

The suspect in the OPM breach was China.

But Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William "Jerry" Boykin, now serving as executive vice president of the Family Research Council, said the prospect of military or civilian leaders having their personal information sold to terrorists is a very real threat that must be taken seriously.

"First of all you have to ask yourself what could an individual citizen in America do with your personally identifiable information?" Boykin told WND. "Stolen identities are big business and very problematic and the Chinese could use that for the same thing a criminal would, don't kid yourself."

He said China could steal the IDs from the OPM database and then sell them to Iran, ISIS or some other foreign enemy.

"I think that's a very real possibility, particularly given that they have been major supporters of Iran," he said. "Now, the other thing is, keep in mind that many of these government officials who've had their identities stolen are high-profile people that have enemies. And those enemies may be ISIS or Hezbollah or al-Qaida. But the fact their identity has been compromised would not take even a teenager very long to look up tax records and determine where these people live and that could put them in physical danger.

"You can't downplay that or underestimate it in today's world where we know the terrorists are motivated to go after high-profile people," he added. "Once they compromise your identity, it doesn’t take them very long to find out where you live. OPM probably has the largest database of civilian government employees. Also military, and possibly some contractors."

Michele Bachmann, a former Republican congresswoman from Minnesota who served on the House intelligence committee, said China's breach of the system could yield a windfall of sensitive data that could have multiple uses.

"Any opportunist could use sensitive, potentially embarrassing information to blackmail, extort or steal from an individual or commit any manner of abuses," Bachmann told WND.

"Repeatedly during the Obamacare debate, many of us warned loudly and often that Healthcare.gov could be the portal for misuse of the most personal information any American has," she said. "We learn from experts that sites have links, meaning one government site may allow entry into another."