[June 29, 2011] Y-12 resists cyber attack Tweet OAK RIDGE, Jun 14, 2011 (The Knoxville News-Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Y-12 nuclear weapons plant is one of the latest victims in a series of high-profile cyber attacks against government agencies, high-security institutions and major companies. The Oak Ridge plant's external website was shut down after a database associated with the site was attacked Sunday "by an outside source," a Y-12 spokesman confirmed. "The database did not contain any sensitive information and no Y-12-related activities were compromised," Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said in an email statement. "The database was immediately taken out of service and is being analyzed by Y-12 cyber security staff. For this reason, Y-12's external website has been replaced with a temporary information page. At this point, there is no evidence that any plant-wide email or internal computing services have been affected, nor has any classified or sensitive information been accessed or affected by this incident." The plant is part of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, producing refurbished parts for aging nuclear warheads, recycling old weapons components, and storing most of the nation's inventory of bomb-grade uranium. Y-12's classified information is not on computer systems that are tied to the Internet, Wyatt said. In response to questions, he said the hacker did not obtain personal information of people who had pre-registered for visits to Y-12 this coming weekend as part of Oak Ridge's Secret City Festival. "No personal information was impacted by this cyber attack," Wyatt said. The federal spokesman also said the attack at Y-12 was different than an "advanced persistent threat" -- the aggressive, sophisticated type of attack that hit Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April and has targeted other government institutions and agencies in recent months. On a Forbes blog, "Net Assessment," Sean Lawson, assistant professor in communications at the University of Utah, reported that hackers not only took down Y-12's external website, but also posted the user credentials for five individuals who work at Y-12. "The primary danger in an attack like this is that attackers might attempt to use the credentials that they obtain to access more sensitive systems," Lawson wrote. Wyatt did not comment on that report, but he said Y-12 expects to have its external website up and running today. Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329. To see more of The Knoxville News-Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.knoxnews.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]