Cyber spying a threat, and everyone is in on it

Ghost hackers infiltrating the computers of Tibetan exiles and the U.S. electric grid have pulled the curtain back on 21st-century espionage as nefarious as anything from the Cold War — and far more difficult to stop.

Nowadays, a hacker with a high-speed Internet connection, knowledge of computer security and some luck can pilfer information thought to be safely ensconced in a digital locker. And the threat is growing, with countries — including the U.S. — pointing fingers at each other even as they ramp up their own cyber espionage.

The Pentagon this week said it spent more than $100 million in the last six months responding to damage from cyber attacks and other computer network problems. And the White House is wrapping up a 60-day review of how the government can better use technology to protect everything from the nation's electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems and nuclear launch codes.

In 2008, there were 5,499 known breaches of U.S. government computers with malicious software, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That's up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006.

Serious breaches by what are described as "unknown foreign entities" have occurred in recent years in computers at the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Commerce, as well as NASA, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan organization in Washington.

The electrical grid might already have been compromised by spies who left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service, a former U.S. government official told The Associated Press. The official said the sophistication of the attack meant it was almost certainly state-sponsored, but the government does not know its extent because federal officials lack the authority to monitor the entire grid.

"The vulnerability may be bigger than we think," said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss details.

It's not just the United States. In 2007, Russian hackers crippled computer networks in Estonia for nearly three weeks. In response, NATO set up an Estonia-based cyber defense center, and announced in April that cyber defense is being incorporated into NATO exercises.

"NATO takes this threat very seriously," Carmen Romero, a NATO representative in Brussels, told the AP. "NATO has to be ready for the new security challenges, and cyber attacks are one of them."