Computer Virus Logging Pilot Keystrokes on U.S. Drones

For nearly two weeks, the U.S. military has been struggling to completely eliminate any trace of a computer virus that somehow made its way into the software for the Predator & Reaper drones.

The virus, which was detected by the military’s Host-Based Security System, harbors a keylogger payload and has been capturing every keystroke pilots make as they remotely fly missions over warzones including Afghanistan.

So far every effort to remove the computer virus has proved in vain, an anonymous source that’s familiar with the drone virus infection was quoted in this WIRED report, saying:

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back. We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

Scary, huh?

To make matters worse, it’s unclear just how far the computer virus has spread within the network, although it’s believed that both classified and unclassified machines at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada – where the drones are remotely controlled – have been compromised.

On the upside, there have not been any signs of classified information being sent to an outside source thus far.

The systems controlling the U.S. drones are said to be blocked off from the public internet, although that won’t stop a virus, malware or any other malicious content from making its way into the system via a USB drive. There’s a good chance that's how the computer virus floating around the Predator & Reaper drone cockpits got there in the first place, as crew members use USB drives them to load map updates & move mission videos from PC to PC.

Hopefully the technicians at Creech can successfully rid their systems of the malware soon.

Until then, cross your fingers that the computer virus doesn't start publishing the information it's been logging.

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