'Cyber attack on Pentagon' is fabrication - Moscow

04 December, 2008, 17:40

The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied all allegations of Russia’s involvement in cyber attacks on the Pentagon’s military computer networks.

Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times published an article containing information from “a Pentagon insider” stating that the attack struck hard at networks within U.S. Central Command, the headquarters that oversees U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, and affected computers in combat zones. The article said that the attack also penetrated “at least one highly classified network”. No official comments pointing out the full extent of damage followed on the Pentagon’s part.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry says it is well informed of this unproven and irresponsible speculation, together with earlier reports about cyber attacks on Georgia and Estonia that allegedly had “a definite Russian trace”.

For the American media it is fruitless to even mention that Russia could be not the only country posing a threat to the U.S. military networks, says the ministry.

What is really disturbing, the ministry adds, is the fact that nobody even bothers to investigate such information, resulting in groundless speculations whether it was a lone hacker, or a well-planned state-supported operation.

At the same time the 63rd UN Assembly has almost unanimously voted for a resolution on international IT security, which was initiated by the Russian delegation. The U.S. was the only country to vote against it.