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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Navy officer is subject of security probe
From:       William Knowles <wk () C4I ! ORG>
Date:       2000-11-25 2:07:06
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http://www.uniontrib.com/news/military/20001123-9999_7m23secrets.html

By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 23, 2000

Federal agents seized a computer and disks from the Chula Vista home
of a naval officer who is suspected of downloading classified military
information and trying to shut down the computer system of a local
defense contractor.

No charges have been filed against the officer, Lt. John Eric Larson,
who is assigned to the San Diego headquarters of the Space and Naval
Warfare Command, known as Spawar.

Although Larson remains free and continues working at Spawar, his
access to computers and classified information has been revoked.

A search warrant affidavit filed in U.S. District Court here says
Larson is being investigated for possibly mishandling classified
information and disobeying military regulations.

During the search of Larson's condominium Tuesday, Naval Criminal
Investigative Service agents seized at least one computer and disks,
according to Navy sources. Earlier, a Navy-owned laptop computer and
40 computer disks were turned over by Larson and Navy officials to
NCIS agents.

Navy officials gave few details about the investigation, referring
instead to the search warrant affidavit. Larson declined to comment,
said Lt. Cmdr. Greg Geisen, a Navy spokesman.

The investigation started when officials at Intelesis, a Mira Mesa
defense contractor, contacted the Navy about an attempted hacker
attack on its computer on Sept. 29.

The previous afternoon, someone using a computer at Spawar
headquarters on Pacific Highway had tried to crash the Intelesis Web
site with a so-called denial-of-service attack. Such an attack floods
a targeted Internet-connected computer with requests until the
computer slows or stops.

A computer "fire wall" stopped the attack before any damage was done.

The attack was traced to a Spawar computer that was connected, via a
dial-up telephone line, to Larson's home phone number and computer,
according to the affidavit.

Following a Nov. 8 interview by two NCIS agents, Larson handed over
his Navy laptop computer to the agents, who sent it for forensic
testing, according to the affidavit.

Larson told the agents he planned to leave the Navy and work for
Intelesis, which designs computer software and does consulting work
for Spawar and a variety of civilian firms. Intelesis officials were
unavailable yesterday to comment on the investigation.

About a week after his interview with NCIS agents, the court filing
says, Larson told another officer that classified information was
loaded on the seized laptop and that he had downloaded more classified
information from the Pentagon's top-secret SIPRNET computer network
onto various computer disks.

Larson was sent home and told to bring the information back to the
office.

He returned with nine CD-ROMs, 26 diskettes and five Zip-brand
high-capacity computer disks, which were later given to NCIS for
analysis.

Last week, NCIS agents obtained a search warrant for Larson's
condominium in the 1000 block of La Vida Court in Chula Vista.

Larson was commissioned an ensign in June 1994 after graduating from
San Diego State University. A surface-warfare officer, he served on
the destroyer Oldendorf and the aircraft carrier George Washington
before being assigned to Spawar in December 1998, said spokesman
Geisen.

He was assigned to a Spawar division that handled specialized computer
software purchases.

Before the investigation began, Larson filed a request to resign from
the Navy in December. Naval regulations allow such requests to be
placed on hold during an investigation.

If charges are pressed, Larson would probably be tried under military
law in a court-martial.


*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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