Lockheed Martin Suffering 'Major' Network Disruption

The computer network at Lockheed Martin, the largest provider of IT services to the U.S. government and military, currently has "major internal computer network problems," possibly the result of an external intrusion, an unnamed source told the Reuters news service.

The slowdown, according to another unnamed source cited in the Reuters report, began Sunday (May 22) at the Bethesda, Md., company and is "affecting a lot of people."

Security researcher Robert Cringely noted that Lockheed employees use tokens made by the security company RSA to access sensitive computer networks and that compromised tokens may be responsible for the disruption.

Hackers broke into RSA's servers in March and stole data related to its SecurID authentication tokens . These tokens generate a seemingly random six-digit number every 30 or 60 seconds, and are used by an estimated 40 million employees to access sensitive computer networks.

Lockheed Martin's network disruption is not necessarily the result of targeted cybercrime , however. Mike Lennon from cybersecurity publication SecurityWeek points out, "A network disruption does not automatically mean a breach has occurred."

It's possible, Lennon says, that the networks may have been shut down internally to facilitate the replacement of RSA tokens.

In an email to SecurityNewsDaily, Lockheed spokesman Jeff Adams said, "as a matter of policy, we don't discuss specific threats or responses. However, to counter any threats, we regularly take actions to increase the security of our systems and to protect our employee, customer and program data."

Adams added, "We have policies and procedures in place to mitigate the cyber threats to our business, and we remain confident in the integrity of our robust, multi-layered information systems security."

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