W.House Helicopter Data Found On Iranian Computer

The file was found on an Iranian computer on Feb. 25, several months later, Tagliaferri said.

Potentially sensitive engineering documents about one of two types of helicopters in the U.S. presidential fleet were found on a computer in Iran after they were inadvertently disclosed by an American defense industry executive, according to a cybersecurity company.

Keith Tagliaferri, director of operations at Tiversa, a Pennsylvania-based company that monitors data breaches linked to peer-to-peer file sharing, said the defense contractor and the U.S. government were investigating the incident.

Tagliaferri declined to name the U.S. contractor or give any information about the identity of the Iranian computer where the file was found on Feb. 25.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the government was notified about the data disclosure last summer and fully investigated it. He stressed the data was not classified and involved the VH-60 helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp, a unit of United Technologies Corp, which is used to carry White House staff and guests, not the president.

Another larger Sikorsky helicopter, the V-3, is the model used for the president.

"The information should not have been released, but it did not involve any helicopters that transport the president," Morrell said. The presidential helicopters are operated by the Marine Corps, a part of the Navy.

President Barack Obama has expressed grave concern about cybersecurity issues, and has ordered a 60-day review of computer security efforts across the federal government.

Tiversa said it noticed the disclosure of the file containing engineering and avionics data for the VH-60 helicopter several months ago and immediately notified the Bethesda, Maryland-based employer of the person responsible. That company then alerted the U.S. government, he said.

The data breach did not involve the new generation of presidential helicopter being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp , which is based in Bethesda, Maryland. That VH-71 helicopter project, which is more than 50 percent over budget, was singled out by President Barack Obama last week as an example of the Pentagon's procurement process "gone amok".

Lockheed spokesman Troy Scully said the company was not responsible for the data breach.

"We have been contacted by a representative of Tiversa who told us that Lockheed Martin is not the source of the reported information breach, nor does it involve the VH-71 program," Scully said.

Connecticut-based Sikorsky said it was investigating the incident and declined further comment.

Tagliaferri said the employee was a high-level executive, but the breach took place outside the company's offices, indicating the executive may have had the helicopter data on a home or personal computer that was also used to share music or movies. The disclosure was likely unintentional, he said.

The file was found on an Iranian computer on Feb. 25, several months later, Tagliaferri said.

He said the U.S. defense contractor was not a Tiversa customer, which meant his company had not noticed the data breach until some time after it occurred.

Tiversa downloads more than 100,000 files a day that are inadvertently disclosed through peer-to-peer music and movie sharing software, which give users around the world direct access to another person's computer. The files can include Social Security numbers, payroll data, tax returns and many other sensitive documents, Tagliaferri said.

"This is like a stolen laptop times a million," Tagliaferri said, noting that data breaches through file sharing networks were growing increasingly more common as more people shared electronic versions of movies and music. Hackers and criminals are becoming more savvy in pinpointing such files, he said.

Defense analyst Loren Thompson said the data breach did not involve secret data, but "it highlights the fact that almost anything is available to foreign cybertheft if proper protections are not in place."