Defense giant L-3 Communications has been targeted by hackers armed with inside information pertaining to the SecurID two-factor authentication system. As reported by Wired, an unnamed executive sent out an email early in April saying that "L-3 Communications has been actively targeted with penetration attacks leveraging the compromised information." L-3 supplies what is known as C3ISR (command-and-control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) technology to the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.

This news came mere days after Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) confirmed that a "significant and tenacious attack" was being carried out against its network. Meanwhile, defense contractor Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) was reported to have shut down remote access to its network in a move that caught "even senior managers by surprise," according to Fox News. It is unknown at this point whether the attackers succeeded in penetrating critical systems, and if Northrop Grumman's disabling of its remote access was merely a precautionary measure.

SecurID is owned by RSA, which admitted in March that it was the target of a cyber attack. RSA had also conceded that information could have been stolen, though the company refused to divulge more information. The company said at that time that it was "confident that the information extracted does not enable a successful direct attack on any of our RSA SecurID customers."

For more:
- check out this article at Wired
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at The Register

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