New U.S. weapons systems being developed by the US Department of Defense can be easily be hacked by adversaries, a new government report said.
The Government Accountability Office said the Pentagon was unaware of how easy it could be for an adversary to gain access to the computer brains and software of the weapons systems and operate inside them undetected.
According to the report, the weak points began with poor password management and unencrypted communications, Science X reported.
More critically, the report faulted the US military for not incorporating cybersecurity into the design and acquisition process for the computer-dependent weapons, and said weapons developers often did not themselves adequately understand cybersecurity issues.
"In one case, it took a two-person test team just one hour to gain initial access to a weapon system and one day to gain full control of the system they were testing," it said, adding that in another case, the test team gained control of the terminals of the system's operators.
