Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators

Bigger Than Expected… Federal security officials and computer security investigators have admitted that the breach of a Cisco Systems network last year was larger than they thought. In fact, The New York Times reports that the hacker, or hackers, is based in Europe. Investigators have targeted a 16-year-old in Uppsala, Sweden who was charged in March for breaking into university computers in his hometown. This Cisco break-in led to attacks on computer systems serving the U.S. military, NASA and research laboratories, the Times reports. Several of the nation’s supercomputer labs were hit in April 2004. The Cisco software theft came to light a month later as security investigators at the labs watched electronically as passwords to Cisco’s computers were compromised. Later, instructions on how to compromise the security of Cisco routers was published on a Russian website.