Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet

Sounds to me like this keylogger may be working like a lowjack. If this virus was introduced by a party outside our government, this outside party could know were these drones are and going at all times.
If you had that ability you could tip off whomever with the info.

This is very interesting to me, since a close family member of mine is one of said sensor operators. I'm waiting to see what he says, although it is possible that he won't be able to say anything to me. In the mean time, I will follow this story with interest.

reply to post by mikemck1976


That is a very clever interpretation.

I understand it's a keystroke copier worm? Certainly if a flight plan routing is input in Latitude/Longitude for each waypoint, that would be exactly as you suggested, in terms of being a tip-off.

Of course, the solution then would be to use an encryption code perhaps, so none of the keystrokes would mean anything to someone without the key to decode.....

Another thing about the drones to consider is the increasing use of autonomy in their programming...at least, for basic flight parameters I suppose.

It might get dicey if it comes to an ability to hack into firing codes and targeting radars.......and to over-ride. There must be built-in fail-safes and such, but that's the kind of speculation that is useless, since so much is classified.