Defense, Homeland Security jointly respond to cyber attack on Lockheed Martin

The Pentagon and the Homeland Security Department are aiding contractor Lockheed Martin on an investigation into a cyber attack that reportedly infiltrated the firm's security networks, federal officials said May 28.

"DoD is aware of a cyber incident impacting Lockheed Martin and, together with the Department of Homeland Security, is working with the company in determining the extent of the incident," Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham said. "Impact to DoD is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect." According to Reuters, which first reported the Lockheed incident on May 27, unidentified hackers "breached [Lockheed] security systems designed to keep out intruders by creating duplicates to SecurID electronic keys," according to one person who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. The offenders learned how to copy the security keys with data stolen during the RSA attack, the Reuters story said.