CybersecurityChina Cyber Attacks on AFSPC Contractors ‘Stealing Us Blind’
“Cyber keeps me up at night,” says Brig. Gen. DeAnna Burt, director of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) operations and communications, because China’s cyber warriors are routinely breaching defense and space contractor networks and stealing data on a regular basis. “For every defense contractor in this room, the thing that keeps me up at night is how we manage data on your systems or your sub’s systems,” she warned. “We have had breaches … the Chinese and others stealing things from cleared defense contractors.”
“Cyber keeps me up at night,” says Brig. Gen. DeAnna Burt, director of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) operations and communications, because China’s cyber warriors are routinely breaching defense and space contractor networks and stealing data on a regular basis.
“For every defense contractor in this room, the thing that keeps me up at night is how we manage data on your systems or your sub’s systems,” she warned. “We have had breaches … the Chinese and others stealing things from cleared defense contractors.” While noting that Chinese cyber intrusions are happening across DoD, she stressed that “they very much like space. … And they are definitely stealing us blind on the contractor side.”
Theresa Hitchens, writing in Breaking Defense, quotes Burt to say that the traditional DoD method of trying to build cyber protection into hardware — such as the case with the Air Force’s long-delayed OCX ground control system for the Global Positioning System (GPS) 3 satellite network — is not the way to go. “OCX will tell you they’ve been spending a very long time to build cyber, and it’s slowing us down — trying to get to a perfect Nirvana … that is never going to happen because the enemy gets a vote!”
