Not pictured: Windows 98.
One of the things you’d hope is that the United States military, the most powerful and technologically advanced military in the world, would be immune to simple things. For example, computer viruses may be loading down every network of computers in the world, but you’d like to think that the United States Air Force would have good enough antivirus protection to keep that from getting out of hand on their network. You’d be wrong in that assumption.
The computer systems that run the US military’s Predator and Reaper drone aircraft is infested with computer viruses. Specifically, they have a recurring issue with a keylogger that, when removed, keeps reinfecting their computers. The USAF blames the infection of Windows-powered drone computer systems at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada on flash drives used to transfer sensitive material. Apparently, those flash drives are also transferring viruses from one computer to another.
That said, the USAF says there’s nothing to fear from the virus. It’s annoying, but it’s not a threat to national security and it’s not a threat to combat operations of the drones themselves. “The planes were never in any jeopardy of ‘going stupid'” and the virus “is not affecting operations in any way … it showed up on a Microsoft-based Windows system. We have a closed-loop system and heavily protected cockpits — the planes were never in jeopardy.”
Leave a Reply