Anonymous
According to a Washington Post article members of the secret group Anonymous are attempting to infiltrate key military bases inside the United States (source: “Anonymous secret presence within the U.S. military”, by Jessica Chasmar http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/14/anonymous-secret-presence-within-us-military-repor/).
Anonymous is a loosely associated network of hacktivists known for conducting cyber attacks against the United States government.
One military base specifically targeted by the group is Ft. Huachuca.
Ft. Huachuca is located in Cochise County, Arizona. It is home to the United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence (USAICoE). It is the U.S. Army’s school of professional training of all of its military intelligence personnel.
Ft. Huachuca is also home to the Army’s elite Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM).
NETCOM is a Direct Reporting Unit (DRU) to the Army’s Chief Information Officer (CIO/G-6). Its mission is operating and defending United States army computer networks. NETCOM plans, coordinates, installs, integrates, protects, and operates Army Cyberspace, enabling Mission Command through all phases of joint, inter-agency, intergovernmental and multinational operations worldwide…
Its commanding general (Brigadier General Peter A. Gallagher) is designated as the Deputy Commanding General for Network Operations, U.S. Army Cyber Command/ 2nd U.S. Army.
The NETCOM team has nearly 16,000 soldiers under its command, including Department of the Army Civilians and Contractors stationed around the world in more than 22 countries, providing direct and indirect support to Army Joint and coalition forces.
According to the article, which quoted an Anonymous source (who identified himself as a Captain serving on active duty in the military) members of the organization want to get jobs at Ft. Huachuca to gain access to “secret stuff”.
The unidentified source indicated that lots of its (Anonymous) members presently serving in the military are “mid – to high ranking NCO’s” and are “well respected, have connections, and overly large security clearances.”
If the information the Anonymous source presented in the article is true it poses a very serious threat to national security for obvious reasons.
Most disturbing to me is the thought that Anonymous members have infiltrated the military in order to gain access to our computer networks.
Anonymous as a group is infamous for its well publicized hacks of computer networks and its distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the United States government.