Computers Controlling Military Drones May Be Infected

07.10.2011
The computers used to control Predator and Raptor drones used in Afghanistan and other war zones have been reportedly infected by a virus that captures the keystrokes of the pilots operating the unmanned aircraft.

Although detected two weeks ago by the military's network security systems, the military has been unable to purge its computers of the apparent keyboard logger, Friday in Wired's Danger Room blog.

"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," a source familiar with the network infection told Shactman. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know."

According to , the virus hasn't prevented pilots stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada--where the drone control center is located--from completing their missions. Nor has any classified information been lost or sent to an outside source, Wired reported.

No one knows how the malware got into the system or whether its arrival was deliberate or accidental, but it has infected both classified and unclassified machines. That means information nicked from the classified networks could be funneled to the unclassified networks where it could be leaked to clandestine locations on the public Internet.

According to Wired, the Air Force isn't commenting directly on the infection. A spokesman for the service's Air Combat Command, which oversees the drone program, said that that it doesn't discuss specific vulnerabilities, threats and responses to its computer networks because it can help intruders refine their attacks on military systems.