An Evolving Crisis

February, 1998. Air Force and Navy computers are hit by malicious code that sniffed out a hole in a popular enterprise software operating system, patched its own entry point—then did nothing. Some attacks are routed through the United Arab Emirates while the U.S. is preparing for military action in Iraq. Turns out the attacks were launched by two teenagers in Cloverdale, Calif., and an Israeli accomplice who called himself the "Analyzer."

March, 1998, through 1999. Attackers use special code to gain access to Web sites at the Defense Dept., NASA, the Energy Dept., and weapons labs across the country. Large packets of unclassified data are stolen. "At times, the end point [for the data] was inside Russia," says a source familiar with the investigation. The sponsor of the attack has never been identified. The Russian government denied any involvement.