DHS had 844 "cybersecurity incidents" during the government's 2005 and 2006 fiscal years, and it described that number as "high and unacceptable."
The data breach adds to countries such as France, Germany and the U.K. that hackers in China have attacked them for sensitive information on government computer systems.
In 2002, Unisys won a $1 billion contract to manage U.S. government computer systems created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to shore up the nation's defense. Unisys received a $750 million contract in early 2006 to continue the work.
Three months passed before clues emerged that malicious software capable of copying and transferring files had been installed on 150 DHS computers. In 1997-1998 I monitored a network that featured the same type of shenanigans. In the DHS case, the software led to the transfer of unclassified data late at night or early in the morning to a Chinese-language Web site. This is Security 101.