Pentagon Hit by Fake E-mails on ‘North Korean Missile’
The Pentagon warned its employees over the weekend of a new threat to its cyber security: e-mails that look like they were sent by the U.S. government but weren’t.
Calling it an attempt at “cyber exploitation,” officials urged Defense Department employees against clicking on links in e-mails from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with the subject line “DPRK has carried out nuclear missile attack on Japan.” Employees who had been duped by the message were told to cease using their computers and contact the help desk.
“The attacks utilize e-mail messages attempting to fool DoD users into clicking on embedded links and opening e-mail attachments,” reads a cautionary e-mail sent out by a Pentagon IT official to employees of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “E-mail has historically been a very successful attack mechanism. Studies indicate that a success rate of user compromise is about 70 percent during the initial attack phase.”