Virus infects U.S. drone warplanes flying combat missions; search for security hole

"No one’s panicking. Yet." he added.

 

The virus logs every keystroke of the drones' pilots, directing the robotic craft from ground control bases.

 

The military stressed that the virus, identified two weeks ago, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas  But it is not the first time security issues have plagued the bot warplanes, which have become a staple of anti-terrorist war technology.   In the summer of 2009, U.S. forces discovered “days and days and hours and hours” of the drone footage on the laptops of Iraqi insurgents. A $26 piece of software allowed the militants to capture the video.

 

The problem that time seemed to be a lack of encryption of video data transmitted by the drones.

 

 

We shall see how the story unfolds and will report information to you as it develops.  Certainly, security specialists will be on the watch to see whether the vulnerability was an opportunistic exploit of security software systems, or whether, perhaps more ominously, hardware defects or sabotage helped introduce the virus.  
 

Congressional committees such as the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee have been investigating how deeply counterfeit microchips and sabotaged electronics may have infiltrated the military supply chain.  Senator Carl Levin has revealed that critical weapons systems have been so infiltrated.  It is natural that technicians are worried about security flaws in the hardware, as well as in the more immediate and common concern  about exploitations of software and firewalls.  

 

Wired reports that "...[more than] 150...Predator and Reaper drones, under U.S. Air Force control, watch over the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. American military drones struck 92 times in Libya between mid-April and late August. And late last month, an American drone killed top terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki — part of an escalating unmanned air assault in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabian peninsula."

 

 

Photo: Drone pilots control room at Creech, Nevada