In today's announcement of the hack of members of the Joint Staff in the Pentagon, the hack was attributed to the Russians. There was some press speculation about it being similar to other types of hacks that were long-term and did not seem to take information. It was intended for long-term monitoring and not a quick strike to get a specific database like OPM's.
That kind of speculation is just that. Unless there is more evidence, we should give it some time before making an attribution. The Russians were said to be behind the State Department hack of email, which is still going on. Since it has been going on for 6 months, it is likely the people doing the attribution for that one got it right.
Aside from the attribution issues, the Joint Staff is part of the DoD, which has unclassified networks that are supposed to be safe, secure, and protected from the Internet. We pay a boatload of money for some of those and we should be finding out how they ended up getting hacked. Since OPM brought a spotlight to hacking Federal agencies, it is possible somebody up the food chain will decide to pay attention this time. The Postal Service, State Department, OPM, the IRS, and a host of other DoD hacks are clear indication nobody is paying attention. We used to give money to the Services and Agencies so they could do security, and they would spend it for other things, then ask for more if they have a problem. Somebody is doing that now and nobody is checking to see where that money is going.
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