A “significant compromise” of U.S. military networks has been acknowledged by the Pentagon two years after the breach was reported in the press. “In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks,” Deputy Secretary of Defense William S. Lynn III wrote in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs. “It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East,” he explained.