Calcutta News.Net
Tuesday 11th October, 2011
The United States’ fleet of remote-controlled Predator and Reaper drones has been infected with a computer virus that allows hackers to monitor every action by the pilots.
The ongoing security risk in one of the US military’s most important weapons systems has resisted removal efforts by specialists that manage the military’s computer network.
“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” a military official told CNN. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”
The virus was discovered two weeks ago by the US military’s Host-Based Security System, but thus far there have been no confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source, according to officials.
However, military sources have admitted there are many unknowns; they’re not sure whether the virus was introduced intentionally or by accident, they’re not sure how far the virus has spread and they don’t know how to eliminate it from the network.
The US’ fleet of drones has become the military’s primary weapons system in both the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and has been used in operations over Libya as well.
A fleet of around 30 CIA-directed drones have hit targets in Pakistan more than 230 times and have killed more than 2,000 suspected militants and civilians, according to the Washington Post.
The US Air Force operates a fleet of 150 drones over Afghanistan and Iraq and drones were sent on missions over Libya to help enforce NATO’s no fly zone, striking targets 92 times between mid-April and the end of August.
The system is beset with security flaws though, in 2009 it was reported that video footage sent back to military personnel on the ground was not encrypted and that Iraqi insurgents had been able to capture hours of footage using a US $26 piece of software.
The vast majority of drones are flown from the Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.
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Article source: http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/858017/ht/Spyware-virus-infects-US-military-drones
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