9781422284858

track down the sneaky hackers with . . .

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Archaeologists! Astronauts! Big-Animal Vets! Biomedical Engineers! Civil Engineers!

Climatologists! Crime Scene Techs! Cyber Spy Hunters! Marine Biologists! Robot Builders!

By Mari Rich

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

© 2016 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3416-7 Hardback ISBN: 1-4222-3424-2 EBook ISBN: 1-4222-8485-8

First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Produced by Shoreline Publishing Group LLC Santa Barbara, California Editorial Director: James Buckley Jr. Designer: Tom Carling, Carling Design Inc. Production: Sandy Gordon www.shorelinepublishing.com

Cover image: Lockheed Martin Corporation

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rich, Mari, author.

Cyber spy hunters! / by Mari Rich. pages cm. -- (Scientists in action!) Audience: Grades 9 to 12 Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4222-3424-2 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4222-3416-7 (series : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1- 4222-8485-8 (ebook) 1. Computer crimes--Investigation--Juvenile literature. 2. Computer security--Juvenile literature. 3. Hackers--Juvenile literature. I. Title.

HV8079.C65R53 2016 363.25’968--dc23

2015004676

Contents

Action!. .................................................................... 6 The Scientists and Their Science....................... 12 Tools of the Trade................................................. 22 Tales From the Field!. .......................................... 30 Scientists in the News......................................... 42

Find Out More..................................................................... 46

Series Glossary of Key Terms............................................ 47

Index/About the Author.................................................... 48

Key Icons to Look For

Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowl- edge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weav- ing together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connect- ed to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis.

Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented here.

Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains ter- minology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

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Action!

t was almost a disaster. From the outside, there was very little indication that one of the worst breaches of U.S. military computers in history was occurring. A troubling signal, though, began coming from within the secure network that housed the country’s most important secrets. Among those secrets were highly classified battle plans for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND breaches  breaks in a wall, barrier, or defense classified  kept secret from all but a few people in the government or an organization malware  a software program designed to damage or perform unwanted actions on a computer system nefarious  wicked or criminal propaganda  the organized spread of certain ideas to help a political cause or government thumb drive  a small electronic device, also known as a flash drive, used for storing data or transferring it to and from a computer, digital camera, or other device

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A crack team of cyber experts was summoned to a windowless, computer-filled room in Ops-1. This ordinary-looking building near Washington, D.C., is the home of the National Security Agency (NSA). It is the government organization responsible for safeguarding national security information systems, including those used by the Department of Defense. There in Ops-1, the team discovered a spy, but it wasn’t a human one. It was, instead, a piece of malware —a computer program that was trying to send coded messages back to whoever had created it. The U.S. military’s computer system reportedly includes more than 15,000 networks and seven million computers in hundreds of facilities around the globe. Almost 100,000 people are employed to keep it run- ning. While that gives the United States important advantages over our enemies, there is also the possibility that those enemies can use our technology against us. They mount cyber attacks—assaults on our computer systems and networks. They could steal important research data and spy on sensitive communications. They could copy designs for weapons, or disrupt military maneuvers. They could alter data so that authorized users make decisions based on wrong information, and they could send misleading information into America as propaganda . Cyber attackers try to do this nefarious activity anonymously. They hide their identity by routing their attacks through countries that are unfriendly to us or by taking over computer servers in neu- tral countries. They also can do it inexpensively. Cyber attacks don’t require massive aircraft carriers or high-tech stealth jets. A cyber spy can operate from anywhere. The NSA has the world’s largest array of supercomputers, along with a factory for making its own computer chips. It also employs

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some of the world’s brightest, most technologically adept people. As soon as that troubling signal was discovered in 2008 by an NSA mon- itor, the nation’s top cyber spy hunters got to work. They learned that the malware had been analyzed a few months earlier by a comput- er expert in Finland, who had dubbed it “Agent.btz.” The attack had infected the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, which the De- partment of Defense uses to transmit classified information. It was also inside the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System, which sends super-secret material to U.S. officials wherever they are stationed throughout the world.

Soldiers often work with computers, gathering data, writing reports, and communicating with people back home or in the field. In 2008, hackers used that access to attack military computers.

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Those networks were “air-gapped.” That means they were sepa- rated physically and electronically from other networks that might be unsecured. Somehow, however, Agent.btz had gotten in anyway. NSA cyber spy hunters couldn’t tell right away who had created the malware, but they had their suspicions. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service was at the top of the list. The NSA also didn’t know how long Agent.btz had been lurking on the U.S. system. Those were important questions, but it was even more important to neutralize the malware as quickly as possible and stop it from spreading. The teammembers worked throughout the night, fortifying them- selves with pizza and soft drinks. By morning, they had come up with computer code that ordered Agent.btz to shut itself down. That was only the first step, however. Now they had to track down Agent.btz everywhere it had spread on government networks. That turned into

The ability of a thumb drive to contain enormous amounts of information is a relatively new develop- ment. The portability of viruses and malware makes them much harder to attack and track.

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a long-term task that involved taking individual computers off the networks, cleaning them up, and reformatting their hard drives. Now that the immediate danger had passed, agents asked another question: How had the malware infected their networks? The answer to that big problem turned out to be only the size of a thumb. The team believed that a soldier or military contractor stationed in the Middle East had, without knowing it, used his thumb drive to infect the system. He had copied it from an infected computer at an Internet café. Then the malware had spread when his drive was put into his military laptop. As hard as they tried, agents could not discover the specific thumb drive that started the problem. If they had, its owner would have been in big trouble. Probably without meaning to, he or she had collaborated with Agent.btz, one of the most dangerous spies in military history. What Is a Hacker? When most people think of hackers, they think of bad guys who try to break into computer systems to steal, spy, or do all sorts of harm. Others say a hacker is anyone who is very good at computer programming and who can find out where the problems are in a piece of computer code and fix them. These people say hacking is a very important skill that could be compared to knowing how to operate a bulldozer, for example. Sure, you could go around using your bulldozer to knock down buildings just to be destructive. Or you could use that same bulldozer for better purposes, such as helping construct new buildings. Today, many people use the term “black-hat hacker” to mean anyone who uses their programming skills to steal or spy. The term “white-hat hacker” refers to someone who uses their skills for good, such as helping to keep systems safe.

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The Scientists and Their Science 1

very part of life in the United States relies heavily on computers. That includes banking, transportation, telecommunications , and medical care. So it’s not just the military that is at great risk for a cyber attack. Black-hat hackers could use their programming skills to

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND elite  the part or group having the highest quality or importance epilepsy  a medical condition marked by abnor- mal electrical discharges in the brain predator  a person that stalks other people, or an ani- mal that stalks other animals telecommunications  communication between people far away from each other using telephone, email, or computer viruses  hidden computer programs that produce cop- ies of themselves, insert them into other programs, and usually perform malicious actions, such as de- stroying data; also known as worms or Trojan horses

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The FBI and other government agencies actively recruit future cyber security experts to work for them, in hopes of staying ahead of the black-hat hackers.

steal credit card information or social-security numbers. They could disrupt power and water supplies, get industry secrets from a busi- ness competitor, or totally shut down a network. In addition, if you don’t think a hacker can actually hurt someone physically, think again! In 2008, a Web site for people who suffer from epilepsy was hacked by vandals. They programmed the site to flash bright images rapidly. Epileptic seizures can sometimes be triggered by flashing lights, so that was a foolish and dangerous prank. Some experts say that every second of the day, nine new pieces of malware are developed! Large U.S. companies spend more than $12 million per year each combating and defending against cyber attacks. It’s easy to understand why there is such a need to keep cyberspace safe and secure. The experts who do that work are basically cyber spy hunters.

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