Source: Andrea Shalal-Esa | GAITHERSBURG, Maryland (Reuters) –
Lockheed Martin Corp, the No. 1 information technology provider to the U.S. government, is working hard to better predict and protect against increasingly sophisticated and stealthy cyber attacks.Lockheed, also the Pentagon’s biggest contractor, is opening a second internal security intelligence center in Denver this week to complement the one it opened in May 2008 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, north of Washington.
Some analysts and software developers at the Gaithersburg center starred in a video Lockheed recently posted on YouTube, (here), which portrays the cyber security problem as a complex chess match between U.S. government and industry on one side, and a host of smart attackers from nation states and criminal groups on the other.
“It is a cat-and mouse game between the two sides,” said Eric Hutchins, a Lockheed cyber intelligence analyst. “They’re constantly trying to develop new ways of attacking us and we’re constantly trying to develop new ways of defending us.”
Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated, persistent, stealthy and targeted, Lockheed officials say, which points to greater activity by nation states and more criminal entities rather than the random, individual activities of the past.