Virus hits US drone fleet: report

Virus hits US drone fleet: report
From: AFP
October 09, 2011
6:35AM
A COMPUTER virus has hit
the US Predator and Reaper drone fleet
that Washington deploys to hunt down militants,
logging the keystrokes of pilots remotely flying missions,
Wired magazine reported.

The virus was first detected about two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, but it had not halted missions flown remotely over Afghanistan and other warzones from Nevada's Creech Air Force Base, Wired said Friday.

No classified information was believed to have been lost or sent outside the network, though the resilient virus resisted several attempts to remove it.

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

Military network security specialists said it remained unclear whether the virus was intentional and how far it had spread, but they were certain it had infected Creech's classified and unclassified machines. Secret data may thus have leaked out and reached
someone outside military officials.

The US military does not hide its own drone flights in Libya or the war in Afghanistan,
in contrast to the CIA's covert missions to take out Al-Qaeda extremists in Pakistan,
Yemen and elsewhere. The drones have become a critical weapon of choice for the United States in fighting militants abroad.

In Pakistan alone, around 30 drone strikes have been reported since elite US forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 near the country's main military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital.

The virus is believed to have spread at Creech through removable hard drives used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one computer to another, Wired said. Drone
units at other US Air Force bases around the world have now been told to stop using them.

"It's getting a lot of attention," the source told Wired. "But no one's panicking. Yet."

Virus hits US drone fleet: report
From: AFP
October 09, 2011
6:35AM
A COMPUTER virus has hit the
US Predator and Reaper drone fleet
that Washington deploys
to hunt down militants,
logging the keystrokes of pilots
remotely flying missions,
Wired magazine reported.

The virus was first detected about two weeks ago by the military's
Host-Based Security System, but it had not halted missions flown
remotely over Afghanistan and other warzones from Nevada's Creech Air
Force Base, Wired said Friday.

No classified information was believed to have been lost or sent outside
the network, though the resilient virus resisted several attempts to
remove it.

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

Military network security specialists said it remained unclear whether
the virus was intentional and how far it had spread, but they were
certain it had infected Creech's classified and unclassified machines.
Secret data may thus have leaked out and reached
someone outside military officials.

The US military does not hide its own drone flights in Libya or the war in Afghanistan,
in contrast to the CIA's covert missions to take out Al-Qaeda extremists in Pakistan,
Yemen and elsewhere. The drones have become a critical weapon of choice for the United States in fighting militants abroad.

In Pakistan alone, around 30 drone strikes have been reported since
elite US forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 near the
country's main military academy in Abbottabad, close to the capital.

The virus is believed to have spread at Creech through removable hard
drives used to load map updates and transfer mission videos from one
computer to another, Wired said. Drone
units at other US Air Force bases around the world have now been told to stop using them.

"It's getting a lot of attention," the source told Wired. "But no one's panicking. Yet."
Close encounters of the Adelaide kind

BELIEVE it or not . . .
UFO and ghost chasers reckon
Adelaide is a hotbed of activity.

29 comments on this story

Real or not? Ghosts and UFO's in Adelaide

PLAN TO SAFEGUARD FALKLANDS

Britain currently has more than 1,000 troops,
four Typhoon jet fighters and a frigate based there

Sunday October 9,2011

By Marco Giannangeli

BRITAIN will use bases in South Africa to regain the Falkland Islands if they are ever captured.

Impeccable sources have told the Sunday Express that a special “Plan B” has already been put in place in the unlikely event the islands fall into Argentinian hands.

South
Africa, about 3,800 miles from the Falkland Islands, could act as a
refuelling and rearming stage, though no official details have been
released.

Separate sources revealed Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has been taking the Falklands
issue “very seriously indeed”, with at least one meeting a week on the
subject.

Military analysts have long argued that without an aircraft carrier, Harrier jump jets or
the ability to put together a task force, the islands remain an easy
target for Argentina, which has never given up its claim to the islands
and has intensified its demands since oil exploration began.

In June the country’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner called David Cameron “arrogant” for insisting the islands will remain sovereign UK territory as long as their inhabitants wish to stay British.

In
September British oil company Rockhopper Exploration revealed further
significant new finds around the islands. It said there is enough oil to
make the Falklands a significant production centre.

Britain currently has more than 1,000 troops, four Typhoon jet fighters and a frigate based on the islands.