Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

• Yoorah wrote on 2011-10-10 03:53

  A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.
  
  The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.
  
  “We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”
  
  Military network security specialists aren’t sure whether the virus and its so-called “keylogger” payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don’t know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they’re sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

  
  More here.
  
  So much fail. :<
  I love how they haven't even figured out how dangerous the particular virus is, what exactly it is that it does, or how to remove it. Nexon style troubleshooting.
  ...and they're equipping these things with missiles. :|
• Osayidan wrote on 2011-10-10 03:56
  Even drones browse porn sites.
  This proves it.
• Zid wrote on 2011-10-10 04:12
  More likely to send pre-emptive information than actually controlling the drones.
  
  But that would be a day for failure if those drones are hacked into.
• Chockeh wrote on 2011-10-10 04:14

  ...and they're equipping these things with missiles. :|

  
  
  ...That really worries me.
• Strawberry wrote on 2011-10-10 04:17

  “But no one’s panicking. Yet.”

  
  
  I don't even...Random missiles coming from nowhere would just be freaking scary.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-10-10 04:27

  Quote from Zid;614310:

  More likely to send pre-emptive information than actually controlling the drones.
  
  But that would be a day for failure if those drones are hacked into.

  
  
  That's how you hack into anything, though. :P The key is to get a payload onto a secure device. Once you do that, the payload can "phone home" for more instructions. The fact that unauthorized code got onto classified systems--and then onto a weapons system, is pretty close to being classified as a catastrophic failure from a security perspective. Putting aside the fact that the infection happened in the first place, what baffles me is that they haven't been able to get together a skilled team to analyze and neutralize this issue.
• Lan wrote on 2011-10-10 04:29

  Quote from Yoorah;614356:

  That's how you hack into anything, though. :P The key is to get a payload onto a secure device. Once you do that, the payload can "phone home" for more instructions. The fact that unauthorized code got onto classified systems--and then onto a weapons system, is pretty close to being classified as a catastrophic failure from a security perspective. Putting aside the fact that the infection happened in the first place, what baffles me is that they haven't been able to get together a skilled team to analyze and neutralize this issue.

  
  
  Do they even have tech specialists free that are not sabotaging Iranian nuclear plants?
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-10-10 04:40
  The problem is how skilled the teams at each department/agency are. Those guys working on the virus are probably Air Force noobs that took a couple IT courses. The skilled teams are all in agencies like the CIA and the NSA, which either don't care or have no authority or involvement of any kind in that issue.
  
  Here in Canada, it's a pretty similar deal. While I don't know much about the IT guys working within the armed forces directly, the guys working for the DND are pretty mediocre compared to our CSEC teams. But at the same time, the CSEC is mostly restricted to providing recommendations to other departments, rather than fixing their stuff. Tons of red tape and bureaucracy.
• Zid wrote on 2011-10-10 04:41

  Quote from Yoorah;614356:

  That's how you hack into anything, though. :P The key is to get a payload onto a secure device. Once you do that, the payload can "phone home" for more instructions. The fact that unauthorized code got onto classified systems--and then onto a weapons system, is pretty close to being classified as a catastrophic failure from a security perspective. Putting aside the fact that the infection happened in the first place, what baffles me is that they haven't been able to get together a skilled team to analyze and neutralize this issue.

  
  
  That's kind of the thing though. Would the virus be sufficiently coded to control a Predator drone, rather than just phone home all actions?
  
  Unless I'm missing something about how Predator drones operate in general.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-10-10 04:43
  The ability to phone home is the only action you need, as it lets you upload more sophisticated code that you wouldn't have been able to sneak on there at first. It's the same principle that applies to hacking Windows PCs, and anything really.
  
  Oh, and it should be noted that in theory, the classified network used by the drones should prevent this from happening, by not allowing the predator to contact the outside world. However, if code could get on there in the first place, the code could provide ways to bypass it. We don't know the details of the communications capabilities of those things, so it's hard to speculate about these specifics. :p
• Cannibal wrote on 2011-10-10 04:51
  Yeah, definitely not something you should panic about.
• paladin wrote on 2011-10-10 13:26
  Its funny considering the air force is the wing responsible for cyber defense
  Yet their intel teams arent the best
  The cia and fbi get the best since they need the best in intelligence and surveillance
  It is more of a delicate touch then a military one
• Fynl wrote on 2011-10-10 13:37

  Quote from Osayidan;614278:

  Even drones browse porn sites.
  This proves it.

  
  
  ^^^
  Cybersex to a whole new level.