Even though the Defense Department has invested heavily in cyber-security in the past few years, the Code Red computer virus did serious damage to the Pentagon's computers during last week. The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that spread rapidly throughout a number of military networks
The acknowledgment followed reports that the military has banned the use of removable flash media like thumb drives or memory sticks in any Defense Department computer. The Military Times newspaper, however, cited a November 17 air force memo that ordered the "immediate suspension" of the use of flash media on all unclassified and classified computer networks.
The Pentagon's global information grid includes about 17,000 local and regional networks and seven million individual computers. The Code Red virus attacked systems rather than individual hard drives. It infected approximately 250,000 systems in nine hours, and at that time, officials informed military Web site operators to cut their connections to the public. The Pentagon's public network went back online five days later.
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