impact could be compromising america s fighting forces. reporter: they re america s most advanced combat weapons and defense systems, the fa-18 fighter jet, the combat ship, the aegis ballistic missile defense system. according to a new report the design for these and other high-tech weapons have been breached by chinese hackers. a confidential version of the report from the defense science board made up of government and civilian experts was given to the washington post. the report doesn t accuse china of stealing entire designs, but if they didn t steal them, how did they compromise them? we spoke with kevin mandia a tom cybersecurity expert who did a serate report this year on chinese military hackers. bits and pieces of things will be taken from many different sources and different laptops and computer systems that have been compromised but it s hard to take a lot of these pieces and gel them into one comprehensive picture vof what might be built.
hackers breached more than two dozen american weapons systems that are essential to our national defense. among them, you have the fa-18 fighter jet, a combat trip, the aegis ballistic missile defense system and the advanced patriotic missile batteries. u.s. defense and other officials, they re downplaying the report saying that some of the information is dated. but if chinese cyber spies are able to obtain some of america s most sensitive weapons technology, isn t that a national security concern? outfront with me, colonel cedric latten and kevin mandia is a top cyber security expert who did a separate report this year on chinese military hackers. gentlemen, welcome. colonel, let s begin with you. from everything i have read, the biggest fear here, obviously, if this is all true, the chinese stealing, stealing our sensitive
got their hands on the confidential report and the crux of the report is that the pentagon is unprepared for a full-out cyber attack. does that make you nervous? you know, i know we re doing everything we can about it but here s an unfortunate truth is that technology and how we advance our technology growing faster than safeguards for that technology and always is a gap and never going to get it infinitesimal and always some risk to cyber espionage. it is that gap that perhaps is what the chinese have, you know, seized upon. colonel, back to you. let s run through again just for the viewers who may not be familiar with the weapons systems. as you mentioned, there are dozens of others but it s the f-35 joint strike fighter, the black hawk helicopter and many of us are familiar with by just news, the f/a-18 fighter jet and the aegis ballistic missile defense system.
technology and always is a gap and never going to get it infinitesimal and always some risk to cyber espionage. it is that gap that perhaps is what the chinese have, you know, seized upon. colonel, back to you. let s run through again just for the viewers who may not be familiar with the weapons systems. as you mentioned, there are dozens of others but it s the f-35 joint strike fighter, the black hawk helicopter and many of us are familiar with by just news, the f/a-18 fighter jet and the aegis ballistic missile defense system. how critical, sir, are these to our national defense? extremely critical. for example, let s take the joint strike fighter. that s the quintessential new american weapons system for the first part of this century. it costs $1.4 trillion so far. it s been plagued by a bunch of cost overruns and the reason for
of us are familiar with by just news, the f/a-18 fighter jet and the aegis ballistic missile defense system. how critical, sir, are these to our national defense? extremely critical. for example, let s take the joint strike fighter. that s the quintessential new american weapons system for the first part of this century. it costs $1.4 trillion so far. it s been plagued by a bunch of cost overruns and the reason for the cost overruns is because of many new added features to the aircraft and plus it has to not only meet air force requirements but marine and navy requirements, as well and then the foreign requirements so the program costs a lot of money. every time that something like this happens where the chinese or others get in to the weapons system and hack in to the plans for that weapons system, it means that new plans have to be developed and those costs go up even further. the thing is, you know, we know this, the chinese espionage, we are not breaking