A new way to attack open Pentagon networks.

Military security analysts uncovered and stopped computer crackers who had discovered a new way to attack open Pentagon networks on the Internet, Pentagon officials said Thursday. This new method had been uncovered by analysts at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., Defense Department officials said. The specialists at Dahlgren found a method to thwart those low-level probes -- which differ from the more frequent brutal assaults on security systems -- and alerted all the military services to the new problem and a remedy for it. Although breaking into Defense Department computers might be a challenge, more computer whizzes are focusing their efforts on corporate targets -- where payoffs are much bigger. Sophisticated cybercrooks caused well over $100 million in losses last year, and the trend toward computer crime is on the rise.