U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Cheng S. Yang [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
McClathcy News: US Navy collisions stoke cyber threat concerns
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon won’t yet say how the USS John S. McCain was rammed by an oil tanker near Singapore, but red flags are flying as the Navy’s decades-old reliance on electronic guidance systems increasing looks like another target of cyberattack.
The incident – the fourth involving a Seventh Fleet warship this year – occurred near the Strait of Malacca, a crowded 1.7-mile-wide waterway that connects the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea and accounts for roughly 25 percent of global shipping.
“When you are going through the Strait of Malacca, you can’t tell me that a Navy destroyer doesn’t have a full navigation team going with full lookouts on every wing and extra people on radar,” said Jeff Stutzman, chief intelligence officer at Wapack Labs, a New Boston, New Hampshire, cyber intelligence service.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Two readers have emailed me telling me that this is a possibility (a deliberate cyber attack). I am sceptical .... I would think there would be numerous safeguards to prevent such an attack. But there have been a number of collisions this year .... all in Asia .... and people are asking questions. On a side note .... speculation on cyber and electronic weapons targeting US naval vessels have been around for a long time .... Did A Russian Fighter Jet Buzz A U.S. Destroyer And Successfully Disabled Its Radar And Defense Systems? (November 15, 2014).
More News On Reports that The USS John MacCain and The USS Fitzgerald May Have Experienced Cyber Attacks Before Their Collisions
Were they hacked? US Navy to investigate whether BOTH warships that crashed into much larger merchant vessels with deadly results were the victims of a cyber attack -- Daily Mail
Speculation That Hacking May Have Caused USS John S. McCain's Collision -- International Business Times
U.S. Navy considers possibility of cyber attack after another ship collision -- CSO
5 burning questions on the collision of USS John S. McCain in waters near Singapore -- Straits Times
Navy ships keep getting into accidents. Time to find out why. -- Washington Post
Update: Navy says cyber sabotage played 'no role' in USS John S. McCain incident (FOX News).
