Drone on…
… drone off! 
A computer virus that logs the keystrokes of the pilots of Predator and Reaper drones has infected systems used by drone pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. The infection has not prevented pilots from flying their missions in “Afganistan and other warzones,” nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being transmitted externally or lost. Network security experts say that the virus has resisted multiple attempts to remove it from Creech‘s computers! The virus was first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System.
The obvious question is, “Is the infection in Windows-based systems?” It surely sounds like it to me!
The obvious answer is skillfully omitted from the CNN article, so I am searching the WIRED article for a clue. (The CNN article is a “repackaged” WIRED article. 
) ALL computer systems are susceptible to infections, but SOME have so many viruses engineered for them that it seems wisest to use something else, with fewer flaws.
“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told <WIRED’s> Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”
Military network security specialists ALSO aren’t sure whether the virus and its keystroke-logging payload were introduced intentionally or by accident. (In reality, it does not make a difference!) The specialists also don’t know how far the virus has spread! 😉
CNN notes that since President Obama was sworn in as President, a collection of 30 CIA-directed drones has hit targets in Pakistan more than 230 times, and these drones have killed over 2,000 people, according to The Washington Post.
The drones have security flaws, of course. (Doesn’t everything?) Many Reapers and Predators do not encrypt the video feed that they send to troops on the ground. In 2009, U.S. forces discovered “days and days” worth of such video on the laptops of Iraqi insurgents, which was captured using a $26 piece of software. That sure as heck beats building your own drones!
In late 2008, disks and removable drives helped introduce the agent.btz worm to hundreds of thousands of Defense Department computers. (Yes, that worm infects ONLY Windows systems. ) The Pentagon is still disinfecting machines, three years later. (Cleaning up infected Windows computers could easily be a full-time job!) In response, the military has BANNED removable disks and USB drives, BUT IT STILL RUNS WINDOWS!
Forrest Gump’s mother had something to say on the subject: “Stupid IS, as stupid DOES!
On the PLUS side of Windows vulnerabilities, “someone” (likely a “nation state” [or two, or three]) used them to “take out” gaseous centrifuges for enriching uranium in Iran, with the Stuxnet Worm, likely using removable USB drives.
Eventually, the technicians at Creech Air Force Base used a software tool called BCWipe to COMPLETELY ERASE the drives in infected machines and then rebuilt them from scratch. (No clue there; BCWipe exists for both Windows and several kinds of UNIX.)
CNN (Noah Shachtman of WIRED) says:
The Air Force declined to comment directly on the virus. “We generally do not discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats, or responses to our computer networks, since that helps people looking to exploit or attack our systems to refine their approach,” says Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, a spokesman for Air Combat Command, which oversees the drones and all other Air Force tactical aircraft. “We invest a lot in protecting and monitoring our systems to counter threats and ensure security, which includes a comprehensive response to viruses, worms, and other malware we discover.”
Direct admissions of stupidity are extremely RARE in the armed forces.
But the U.S. is not alone, of course…. A Windows worm grounded Rafale fighter aircraft in France in 2009!
-Bill at
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