Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

A virus of unknown origin is copying every move the drone computers make.
Could they eventually control the drones?
Sounds bad,and tough to get rid of.

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.”

www.wired.com...

The cyber war is ramping up.
Who do you think is doing this?
China,Iran-or someone closer to home?
Is it a drill,or a real hack attempt?





Don't want hackers getting control of these things.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

Don't want hackers getting control of these things.

I'm not sure I even want our military in control of these things, personally, until I start seeing better sense out of everyone anywhere near those levels of control in our military and government.

That being said - given the level of tech and groups involved, shouldn't these things be more than sufficiently hardened against such attack or infection? Gah..

reply to post by Praetorius

I hear you.They are nasty things.
And you would hope they have good firewalls or whatnot-but it appears not sadly.
So someone has code which is attacking the drones systems,recording keystrokes of the operators.
That sounds bad to me.
Its an intel grab at best.
Or maybe an attempt to control the drones.
Bad news.

If you had control of one of these drones where would you go?

its very scary these things are active in the first place.


How do they know it is logging info without being able to trace it back to anyone? I think this is an internal exercize, why would someone or a country take such a risk and reveal their capabilities to infiltrate military hardware without doing something with it. If it was to show off their muscles maybe we will hear who it is soon enough.

Must ask cleverbot about this? Skynet style virus?

reply to post by 8ILlBILl8


id go to jail


seriously though i wouldnt know what to do with a $1.4 million dollar remote control plane!

Its Skynet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has begun!!!!!!!!!


on a more serious note. personally I think it's a terror cell within the U.S. (won't put a name to which one, but take your pick) that did it, and chances are we'll never find out who did it even if the government does.

It's probably China. Wasn't there a thread about how China has been hacking into computers for quite some time?

Anyways, this is just another reason why we should never design or stop designing killer robots like Terminator. Maybe Skynet is real? (hee, hee)
But, seriously. This could get ugly because I could think of several targets that an enemy would zone in on if they were able to control one of these. The fact that the virus is logging keystrokes, it sounds as though it's just a matter of time before they have enough codes and passwords to take control of it.


Hey, gunshooter! Are you reading my mind? We practically wrote about the same post.

Originally posted by el1jah
reply to post by 8ILlBILl8

 

id go to jail

seriously though i wouldnt know what to do with a $1.4 million dollar remote control plane!

with that kind of arsenal on the belly??? I'm sure you could think up one or two things to do with it......... I can't stop thinking of different things I'd do with mine!!!

reply to post by el1jah


Maybe its just a probing worm-the defenses have been breached,now the hackers could take control at their timing.
The Drone command need to stop this as a priority.
Imagine what a massive civilian kill in say islamabad or karachi would do.
Full deployment of all reaper hellfires into the city center.

A double false flag scenario-Hijack the drones to kill their own folks.
Who knows,but I don't like it.
Drones should be grounded if they are hackable IMO.

United states drone division doesn't get infected with a virus..
its gets attacked with a cyber weapon.

What worries me is imagine one of these things being remotely taken over and attacking a neutral, or potential enemy... ie a Turkish ship or an Iranian airliner....

How much you want to make a bet there is a HEFTY amount of Chinese made Electronics onboard those things .... I'd love to see the origin of content but you know nobody is talking about it.

Originally posted by Afterthought
It's probably China. Wasn't there a thread about how China has been hacking into computers for quite some time?

Anyways, this is just another reason why we should never design or stop designing killer robots like Terminator. Maybe Skynet is real? (hee, hee)
But, seriously. This could get ugly because I could think of several targets that an enemy would zone in on if they were able to control one of these. The fact that the virus is logging keystrokes, it sounds as though it's just a matter of time before they have enough codes and passwords to take control of it.

edit on 7-10-2011 by Afterthought because: (no reason given)

Hey, gunshooter! Are you reading my mind? We practically wrote about the same post.

edit on 7-10-2011 by Afterthought because: (no reason given)

well you are one of the first friends I found on this site, for being like minded??
2nd

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
United states drone division doesn't get infected with a virus..
its gets attacked with a cyber weapon.

What worries me is imagine one of these things being remotely taken over and attacking a neutral, or potential enemy... ie a Turkish ship or an Iranian airliner....

star for you, you are absolutely right, and that would be terrifying if that happened. If anyone was wondering if America could look any worse than it does, this would make it so. Or if three or four of these things were being controlled and went ape on a city in the U.S. too horrible to imagine.

That what you get for making every piece of [snip] in China...

Made in China, now featuring spy bugs!

Remember all that China crap with lead in it?

Oops sorry mericans for poisoning yous'

reply to post by gunshooter


Ah, yes! You're right. It's nice to see that it still rings true.

If you do an ATS search for 'China hack computers', many have written threads about how it's believed that China has hacked into everything from DOD computers to the Pentagon and the White House. It would seem as though drones would be the next likely target.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Someone could start world war iii with this thats for sure. I wonder if there is a failsafe, I am assuming a seperate system within the aircraft can make it detonate or at least fall into the ocean, the people who designed it cant be dumb enough not to prepare for this.

This is potentially deadly for the use of remote systems no matter whether they are drones or remote subs or whatever....
With the furtherance of robotic warfare vehicles in all military systems of the world, its possible that the outsiders may be doing something similar to Minot when they shut down Echo flight of ICBMs.(arches eyebrow)nudges elbow...
If it is the more earthly of our protagonists i might conjecture this could be the basis for the next UGH false flag attack that we experience.
I grimace because of this over used phrase, but the fact remains that such spurs to action have moved the opoulace to the call of the PTB many times in the past.
Much to the detriment of our world and its people.
I believe the comptroller of the pentagon at the time of the lost trillions Dov Zakheims company was specialising in such antics just before 9/11 and he did move back to his home Isreal shortly thereafter.....
There may be a distinctly Mossad flavour to this situation.
I dont however rule out China, India, \Pakistan, or a few others in the neighbourhood that got their own virus troubles a while back.

Originally posted by NorthStreet1
How much you want to make a bet there is a HEFTY amount of Chinese made Electronics onboard those things .... I'd love to see the origin of content but you know nobody is talking about it.

edit on 7-10-2011 by NorthStreet1 because: (no reason given)

NorthStreet,you would hope they use their own secret chip foundry for all their systems,but Globalization tells us otherwise.
Maybe even drone manufacturers go for cheapo chinese chips sometimes.
That will bite them in the ass maybe.

Local manufacturing is the way,like in the old days!!
The world is upside down these days.