By Staff
Email to a Friend
Stumble It!
WASHINGTON – Cyber-invaders have hacked into the computer network in U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office, says the Florida Democrat's office.
Two attacks on the same day this month and another one last month targeted work stations used by three Nelson staffers - a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA adviser, says Nelson’s office.
To combat the rising attacks on some of America’s most sensitive computer networks and to close e-security gaps, Nelson said in a statement today that he’s agreed to work with Sens. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, and Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, in calling for the creation of a permanent national cyber-security czar.
“I have had my office computers invaded three times in the last month. One of them, we think, is serious,” Nelson said Thursday, during a Senate Armed Services hearing that touched upon the subject of hackers trying to invade U.S. military computer networks.
But the hackers didn’t make off with any classified information, which isn’t kept on office computers, a Nelson spokesman said Friday.
Nelson is a member of the Senate’s Intelligence, Armed Services and Finance committees; and, he heads a Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA.
Nelson’s office says similar incursions have occurred elsewhere on Capitol Hill. His office also pointed to a Newsweek report last year that federal authorities showed up at the presidential campaign headquarters of both Barack Obama and John McCain and said information on the computers there was being downloaded by a “foreign entity.”
-- Billy House, Media General News Service
Two attacks on the same day this month and another one last month targeted work stations used by three Nelson staffers - a key foreign-policy aide, the deputy legislative director and a former Nelson NASA adviser, says Nelson’s office.
To combat the rising attacks on some of America’s most sensitive computer networks and to close e-security gaps, Nelson said in a statement today that he’s agreed to work with Sens. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, and Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, in calling for the creation of a permanent national cyber-security czar.
“I have had my office computers invaded three times in the last month. One of them, we think, is serious,” Nelson said Thursday, during a Senate Armed Services hearing that touched upon the subject of hackers trying to invade U.S. military computer networks.
But the hackers didn’t make off with any classified information, which isn’t kept on office computers, a Nelson spokesman said Friday.
Nelson is a member of the Senate’s Intelligence, Armed Services and Finance committees; and, he heads a Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA.
Nelson’s office says similar incursions have occurred elsewhere on Capitol Hill. His office also pointed to a Newsweek report last year that federal authorities showed up at the presidential campaign headquarters of both Barack Obama and John McCain and said information on the computers there was being downloaded by a “foreign entity.”
-- Billy House, Media General News Service