Wired reports that the US Drone fleet has been hit by a virus.
These unmnaned aircraft are full of electronic devices and remotely controlled for various missions in Afghanistan and other war zones.
A computer virus was discovered and several efforts to get rid of it failed. One of its capabilities is to record keystrokes, which in essence could leak top secret information.
I wonder what exactly they have tried to remove the virus but the fact it keeps coming back could suggest they are dealing with some advanced malware (rootkit).
Another puzzling thing is this alleged quote: “”We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”” To me it does not sound like the person who said that is really adequate for their job. Maybe it is just an effort to downplay the risk, but it’s really bad at it.
I have said it before, an infected system should not be trusted anymore, especially if such a system is part of critical infrastructure. Who knows if this is the only virus on there, the fact that they found one shows there was a weakness in their systems that could have allowed multiple intruders in.
Jerome Segura
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