The US Reaper and Predator drone fleet hit by virus


There isn’t much said about it but it is well known in security circles that the Predator and Reaper drones used by the American military do have security flaws with the most well known one being that the video sent to US ground troops is unencrypted.

However word has broken that about the fact that a computer virus has infected Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilot’s keystrokes as they fly remote missions over Afghanistan and other war zones.

It seems that the virus was first notice almost two weeks ago by the military and its Host-Based Security System. This discovery hasn’t stopped any of the missions being flown and there has been no confirmation yet of any classified data being sent to outside sources.

Ars Technica is reporting that sources within the military and familiar with the infection are saying that every effort to remove the infection is being taken but every time they remove one instance of the virus another replaces it.

Military security experts aren’t sure how the infection got started int he first place and they aren’t sure of just how far the infection has spread but they are pretty sure that it has hit both classified and unclassified machines.

This uncertainty leaves open the possibility that classified inc=formation may have indeed been captured via the virus payload and sent to outside individuals.

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