[duawLauff]

http://www.e-cloudy.com/2011/10/us-d...omputer-virus/



The US government’s unmanned Predator and Reaper drones are continuing to fly remote missions overseas despite a computer virus that has infected the plane’s US-based cockpits, according to one source familiar with the infection. Government officials are still investigating whether the virus is benign, and how it managed to infect the heavily protected computer systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, where US pilots remotely fly the planes on their missions over Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“Something is going on, but it has not had any impact on the missions overseas,” said the source, who was not authorised to speak publicly.

Armed tactical unmanned planes have become an increasingly valuable tool used by the US government to track and attack individuals and small groups overseas, but the virus underscores the vulnerability of such systems to attacks on the computer networks used to fly them from great distances.

Wired magazine first reported the virus infection on its website on Friday in the US and said it was logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely flew missions over Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The virus had resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, Wired said, quoting network security specialists.

SOURCE : WIRED