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.

The armed drone has become America’s weapon and surveillance tool of choice in warzones from Afghanistan to Pakistan to Yemen. So when Danger Room reported on Friday that Creech security specialists had spent the last two weeks fighting off an infection in the drones’ remote cockpits, there was an almost instantaneous media uproar.

It also caught off guard the 24th Air Force, the unit that’s supposed to be in charge of the air service’s cybersecurity, multiple sources involved with Air Force network operations told Danger Room. “When your article came out,” one of those sources said. “it was like, ‘What is this?’”

In its Wednesday statement (.docx), the Air Force said that was flat wrong — that the 24th knew all along...

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But the Air Force did provide a few details about the malware. They said it was first noticed on “a stand-alone mission support network using a Windows-based operating system.” And they called it “a credential stealer,” transmitted by portable hard drives. (Security specialists had previously identified it as a program that logged pilots’ keystrokes.) “Our tools and processes detect this type of malware as soon as it appears on the system, preventing further reach,” the Air Force added.

The malware “is routinely used to steal log-in and password data from people who gamble or play games like Mafia Wars online,” noted the Associated Press, relying on the word of an anonymous defense official. That official did not explain why drone crews were playing Mafia Wars or similar games during their overseas missions.

Iranian TV has shown the first video footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it downed near the Afghan border. The film was captioned "RQ170 - advanced US spy plane" and carried on the Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Network 1 channel. The images show Iranian military officials inspecting the aircraft, which appears to be largely undamaged.