More info has come to light on the recent cyber attack on the servers of Lockheed Martin, the US defense contractor. The company has admitted via a press release that its servers came under attack on Saturday, May 21. However the company added that its electronic security team "detected the attack almost immediately" and took steps to protect its data from being lifted. According to the press release, "our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised." The press release added that it has kept the US government agencies informed about what happened. It states, "The team continues to work around the clock to restore employee access to the network, while maintaining the highest level of security."
Bloomberg reports that the US Department of Homeland Security along with the Department of Defense are indeed aware of the cyber attack against Lockheed Martin and has offered to help the company in its investigative efforts. According to a spokesperson for the US military, it expects that the impact of the cyber attack "is minimal and we don’t expect any adverse effect." Even US President Barack Obama was informed about the cyber attack. White House spokesperson Jay Carney stated, "Based on what I’ve seen, they feel it’s fairly minimal in terms of the damage."
As we reported on Saturday, Lockheed Martin uses the SecurID system created by the RSA unit of EMC Corp. Last March EMC Corp announced that a security breach resulted in info about RSA’s SecurID system being taken. It"s currently unknown if the two incidents are related.