HUA HIN, Thailand - A computer virus has infiltrated what was previously
considered one of the planet's most secure systems. The United States
military's defense network became infected over two weeks ago and the target
was Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, more specifically the predator drones that
fly sorties over Afghanistan and the Middle East.
News of the cyber-attack had been kept quiet until Wired magazine broke the
story on its Danger Room website. The virus infiltrated the cockpits of
Predator and Reaper drones and logged the keystrokes of the pilots who
continued to fly the unmanned aircraft despite the infection.
The key logger software has yet to be contained by military
network administrators, who have been using conventional anti-virus programs to
scan for and remove the threat. The last resort was to wipe the hard disks and
set up the computer systems from scratch, this though may also prove futile if
the malware keeps returning.
"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back. We think it's benign, but we
just don't know," a source familiar with the infection told Wired's Danger
Room. All of the information from computers that coordinate the drones has been
backed up in preparation for a full system rebuild.
Military spokesmen have since stated that there is no sign that the virus has
damaged any of the systems used by the attack drones or transmitted any data
outside of the chain of command. It is still unclear whether the malicious
software was introduced to the system by accident or whether it was a targeted
attack from a third party.
It has been postulated that removable hard drives used to transfer map updates
and mission videos from system to system may have helped spread the infection.
In 2008, removable drives were responsible for the spread of a worm over
hundreds of thousands of Defense Department computers - the Pentagon is still
cleaning machines today. Portable hard drives are now heavily restricted by the
military. Unfortunately for them, Creech was one of the exceptions up until the
virus hit.
Predator and Reaper drones have not been immune from security breaches in the
past. In the summer of 2009, US troops discovered days of unencrypted drone
video footage on the laptops of Iraqi insurgents who used satellite signal
downloading software that is easily available on the web.
Drones are still flying today over Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen, and
they have recently been used to carry out high-level targeted kills of key
al-Qaeda linked personnel, including second-in-command Atiyah abd al-Rahman and
Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric.
The facts that higher authorities only found out about this viral infection via
a news website and that the drones continued to be flown on missions while they
were compromised leaves us wondering what will be next on the digital
battlefield.
Security
Sony was on the end of another cyber-attack this week, and the entertainment
giant has been forced to suspend 93,000 user accounts. After monitoring an
unusually large number of unauthorized sign-in attempts, the company took
action to protect its PlayStation Network members by limiting access to their
personal accounts.
Between October 7 and 10, hackers succeeded in verifying valid sign-in IDs to
the accounts, Sony has stated that credit card details linked to these accounts
were not accessed and less than one tenth of one percent of consumers across
its three networks may have been affected.
Sony is still smarting from a huge data breach in April that compromised over
100 million online gaming and entertainment accounts and forced the company to
shut down its PlayStation Network.
The bad news for Sony isn't ending soon as the company had to recall 1.6
million Bravia flat screen televisions this week due to faulty components
posing a fire risk.
Software
The latest iteration of Apple's mobile operating system has been rolled out
this week. iOS5 can be updated wirelessly over the Internet, it boasts over 200
improvements including iCloud integration, iMessage, and Siri, a virtual
personal assistant that is only available on the new iPhone 4S.
The release is the first product launch since founder Steve Jobs passed away
last week and Apple investors will be looking for more of the same in coming
months to secure their stakes in what this week is again the world's most
valuable company after share-price gains on strong demand for the iPhone 4S.
iCloud is also being pushed heavily by Apple, which aims to lock in users with
a service that shares their photos, music, movies and data across all of their
i-devices. It may even surpass iTunes in popularity amongst Apple aficionados.
The software has been designed to operate in a similar fashion by making sure
that users only subscribe to company services on company devices - a win-win
scenario for Apple.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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