Helicopter security breached

WASHINGTON – The Navy is investigating how an unauthorized user in Iran gained online access to blueprints and other information about a helicopter in President Barack Obama’s fleet.

Employees at data monitoring firm Tiversa last week discovered that potentially sensitive information about the helicopter had been viewed by a “malicious” source in Iran, company spokesman Scott Harrer said Monday.

Tiversa late last year notified a Bethesda, Md.-based defense contractor that there was an “open window” in their network leaking information about the helicopter. But the first known breach came last week by an Iranian source who had been actively trying to harvest sensitive information, Harrer said.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which is headquartered in Bethesda and manufacturing a new fleet of presidential helicopters, is not the source of the leak, Harrer said. But he declined to identify Tiversa’s client, or the source of the leak.

Cranberry Township, Pa.-based Tiversa monitors peer-to-peer file sharing networks for government agencies and large enterprises.

Tiversa immediately notified the government after discovering someone had accessed information about the president’s helicopter, Harrer said, adding that the company also alerted federal officials of the “open window” in October.