美韩网络遭受攻击

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Good evening. When we talk about national security, generally we are usually thinking about troops and tanks and ships and planes, hardware and not software. But our lead story here tonight may change people’s thinking. Our nation’s been hit by a major attack and it’s computer-based.35 important websites, government, private sector have been hit and hit badly, both in the US and South Korea since July 4th. The attacks have included the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon and they show a certain vulnerability. We begin tonight in our Washington bureau with NBC’s Pete Williams.

Pete, good evening.

Brian, government and private industry experts say these attacks were unusually intense and long-lasting and they’re scrambling tonight to find out where they came from.

Among the targets were the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, both of which say they successfully fought it off. But it swarmed the public websites of at least a dozen US government agencies, including the White House. Two of them for the Federal Trade Commission and the Transportation Department were out of commission for at least two days.

“If this was meant, there is a message, by whoever is responsible for. The message has been received. America’s guard is up and our defenses will get stronger and stronger.”

Experts call it an unusually large denial of service attack with the originator sending out signals to enlist up to 60,000 computers that ganged up on the targeted websites, overwhelming them with millions of messages.

Government operations like Air Traffic Control were untouched and the attack appears not to have targeted any other critical private sector systems like those controlling power lines or public water systems. But government websites were also hit in South Korea. Its intelligence agency says it believes the attack may have originated in North Korea. American officials say the source is unknown. US government websites are constantly targeted and intelligence agencies have robust defenses. But the former top US intelligence computer expert says there’s no government-wide security requirement.

“I’m in favor of federal standards, but oftentimes within the federal government, each agency sets its standards about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.”

Obama administration officials say this attack's a warning about the need to shore up cyber security, something they say the president has made a priority.

Brian.

Pete Williams starting us off tonight

Pete