Pentagon Spokesperson Asked Point Blank: Was The DOD Affected By The AT&T Data Breach

2 months ago

During a press briefing on Friday, Pentagon Deputy Spokesperson Sabrina Singh answered reporter questions on a recent AT&T data breach.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00Sabrina, thanks. The UN this week issued a report on Afghanistan, and it indicated al Qaeda is

00:06sending more operatives there and opening new training camps. It also said that ISIS-K has

00:11managed to infiltrate some of the Taliban ministries and also push into Central Asia and is even

00:16running a special ops force in Iran. How concerned is the Pentagon about al Qaeda and ISIS-K

00:22operations out of Afghanistan? And what, if anything, at this point is the Pentagon doing

00:28to push back? As a second unrelated question, has the Pentagon been impacted at all by the AT&T

00:35breach that was disclosed? If so, what is the Pentagon doing to mitigate?

00:40Thanks, Jeff, for the question. On the AT&T breach, I'm not aware of an impact to the

00:46department. But of course, this is developing in real time. So if there is an impact, we can let

00:52you know on that. When it comes to ISIS-K, and just the proliferation of ISIS, not just in

01:01Afghanistan, but you're seeing also throughout Africa, it is something, of course, that remains

01:06top of mind for the United States, which is why you have our mission in Iraq and Syria to continue

01:13that fight against ISIS. It's something that we continue to monitor. And whether it be from

01:19AFRICOM or CENTCOM, it's something that we take very seriously. So of course, we're concerned with

01:24any proliferation of any plots or plans against U.S. service members or our partners and allies

01:30around the world. And it's something that we're going to continue to watch. All right, I'll come

01:34back in the room here. Yes, and then I'll come over to you, Sai. You said that the surge of aid

01:38had saved lives. It's estimated that the amount that was unloaded into the marshalling area was

01:43the equivalent of one day of pre-war aid delivery into Gaza. Off of that, then, do you know how much

01:51actually reached the people off Gaza? Whose lives were saved? How many? So maybe I can explain to you

02:01our role in distributing aid, and then what USAID's role and WFP and the UN is. So what we have done

02:09is facilitating the aid getting into the marshalling area in Gaza. Once it gets to the

02:14marshalling area, it gets distributed out by WFP or contracted drivers that USAID has been in close

02:20coordination with. It goes into distribution centers within Gaza and then gets further

02:24distributed out. I don't have a count for you of how many lives have been saved, but what I can

02:28tell you is that people are hungry, there are people in need of that food, and we delivered

02:34nearly 20 million pounds of food to the people in Gaza. So we are saving lives. I think it's

02:39important to remember that. And what you saw with our forces is running towards the problem.

02:46We created a solution. We believe it was a success. Just one other follow-up. Did anyone at the

02:51Pentagon research summer Mediterranean sea conditions before embarking on this project?

02:56There's a sense that you were taken completely by surprise, and in fact, the JLOX is completely

03:01unsuitable for the conditions off the coast of Gaza. So we are a planning organization. We have

03:09folks all around the world that operate within the Eastern Med at any given time. Of course,

03:14we are aware of the sea conditions within the Eastern Mediterranean. We are not shying away

03:19from the fact that there have been higher sea states that have at times disrupted delivery of

03:25aid and have made it harder to get aid in. But again, I would say to you and on some of these

03:32questions, to do nothing would have been a failure. To be part of a solution, that's success. And

03:38that's what you saw with our personnel delivering that aid into Gaza.

03:41Will there be an inquiry now as to where this $230 million of taxpayer money actually went,

03:45and whether it was worth it, and the decision-making process behind it?

03:49I think it was worth feeding people who needed it most. Yeah. All right. Yeah,

03:53Erin, and then I'm coming over here. Just kind of a follow-up. How many days

03:56has the pier been functioning, like getting aid off the pier onto land?

04:02I believe it was a total of 20 days since it was anchored in mid-May.

04:09That it's taken food off of the pier and delivered it onto shore, 20 days total?

04:15Well, two separate things. So the functionality of the pier, it's been operable for about 20 days.

04:23You have to remember that aid started to move when we moved the pier a few weeks ago back to

04:29Ashdod. There were those contracted drivers that started moving aid out of the marshaling area

04:35into distribution centers, because the marshaling area was essentially at capacity. So that was

04:40happening while aid was not moving off the pier, because it was pretty full, but there wasn't a

04:48need to necessarily move aid in at a rapid pace. Great. Yes?

04:52Thank you.

04:53How does the...

Pentagon Spokesperson Asked Point Blank: Was The DOD Affected By The AT&T Data Breach

Category

Transcript

Recommended