Adm. John Richardson, US Chief of Naval Operations, meets with Chinese navy chief Adm. Wu Shengli

WASHINGTON: At a time when the Navy is being hounded by cyber attacks on its networks, the service’s top admiral suggested Wednesday that publicizing the names and ranks of his top officers — a longstanding tradition — have made them targets.

“I don’t know if you’ve been personally attacked in the cyber world, but our flags [officers] are,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told a small group of reporters at the McAleese/Credit Suisse conference here.

Richardson was defending the Navy’s decision to stop releasing the names of officers who have been promoted, along with their new assignments, something all the services do on a regular basis. The Navy stopped publishing lists of newly promoted officers in October without warning. The Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps all continue to regularly publish similar lists.

“There’s always a tension between on the transparency and security.,” the admiral said. “If we can do anything to make sure we’re keeping their information and stuff secure,” they will, he added. “This may not work out in the end, I don’t know, but that’s kind of our mindset there.”

The refusal to publish the names and promotion of officers was first reported  by USNI News last month.

Some of the Navy’s growing cyber problems were outlined in an internal report obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The report detailed how the service and its defense industry partners are “under cyber siege” by Chinese, Russian, and Iranian hackers. (Some of the most notorious examples involve contractors on the massive F-35 stealth fighter program). The Navy is currently assessing how vulnerable its networks and cyber practices are, according to the report.

“We shouldn’t be surprised, I suppose, that that’s a target,” Richardson said.

Ellen Lord

The Pentagon has been working on a program to make cyber hygiene a pillar for how it buys weapons and equipment from industry. Under secretary for acquisition Ellen Lord said last year she has been meeting regularly with defense industry reps to talk about how cybersecurity will affect future acquisition decisions. She said she’s taken to bringing intelligence staffers along with her to meetings with industry to impress on them the dangers of poor cyber hygiene.

The joint Pentagon / White House Defense Industrial Base report, released in October, singled out China as a major threat when it comes to hacking into poorly secured defense industry networks, and promised reforms in how it protects US intellectual property.

Richardson did not detail any extra steps he is taking to improve cyber hygiene or protect his officers, other than shielding their identities and job titles from the public.