US Drones Infected With Computer Virus - Shocked, I tell ya . . .

[bigtree]

October 8, 2011


The U.S. Government's unmanned Predator and Reaper drones, which reacked havoc on terrorist organizations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have apparently been hit by a computer virus. According to reports, the virus infected software at the drones' command center at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

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, Wired.com reported.

Since the security of these unmanned killer machines has now been compromised, there may now be questions raised over both the accuracy of these vehicles and the safety of friendlies and civilans in a hostile situation. The U.S.'s use of drones has often been questioned, following several reports of inaccurate strikes.

For example, a strike in January, 2009 in Pakistan, saw a drone target the wrong house - the residence of a pro-government tribal leader in South Waziristan. The strike killed the leader's entire family, including three children, one of whom was only five-years-old . . .




read more:http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/227525/20111008/us-drones-infected-with-computer-virus-how-secure-afghainstan-pakistan-are.htm

related:

Civilian Deaths in Drone Attacks
http://www.thenation.com/blog/162781/challenging-us-claims-civilian-deaths-drone-attacks

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[ensho]

2. thank you hacker

nt

[bigtree]

4. concerns the virus may be responsible for 'collateral' and innocent casualties

[ensho]

5. then they shouldn't use the drones

until they are sure they work perfectly.

I'd rather they didn't use the drones at all.

[bigtree]

6. from your keyboard

to their godlike ears

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. If they thought they could keep them safe...

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. So, the war with the machines begins with a whimper.

[Gman]

8. Please don't say the drones use Windows

Surely they don't?

[ensho]

9. lol

presently Windows is persistently trying to give me an update I don't want - scream

[NYC_SKP]

10. You know they do, if they used Apple products and Mac OS, there would be oodles of posts about it.

I don't know of any keylogger apps that work on a Mac.

There are a TON of them that will work on windows machines.

My guess is that these apps are off the shelf windows bugs that got in there.

But that's just me...

[Gman]

12. Nor Linux

[IDemo]

11. "It looks like you were trying to bomb an Al Qaeda outpost."

"Would you like to bomb the Apple headquarters building instead?"

[Gman]

13. I hate that friggin' paperclip!