US Drone fleet infected with keylogger virus

[walker 0]

Hi all

In an attack similar to that which hit the Iranian nuclear industry the US Drone fleet has been infected with some form of keylogger virus.

http://m.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/

This could have already allowed interception of video of US missions as well as passwords to have been downloaded. It is known that Al Qaeda were intercepting US drone feeds but this is far more disturbing as it could make it possible to take over a drone or cause it to become uncontrollable.

Walker

Edited October 8, 2011 by walker

[-martin- 10]

Now that's real cyber warfare

[dmarkwick 261]

Maybe they should use BattleEye or Fade.

[walker 0]

Hi all

The question is who is doing it?

Walker

[slatts 1978]

Hi all

The question is who is doing it?

Walker

some 16 year old kid who gets bullied if he goes to school so he stays in a dark room all day playing PC games and learns how to hack then thinks UAV's are cool after playing games so he hacks a drone and uploads a virus

[mrcash2009 0]

The question is who is doing it?

Heres my list if ideas:

1. Any unseen enemy that can be taken out of a hat (or any hackers or internet based folk that can be taken out of the hat)

2. Any bombing or mis-dropped bomb/error or civilian drone kill = the hackers did it & they are ___ insert out of a hat ___

Maybe they should use BattleEye or Fade.

Now that did make me smile :) Maybe they should know better than to have things so intertwined that this can happen anyway, and maybe dont introduce drones. Edited October 8, 2011 by mrcash2009

[slatts 1978]

you know teenagers hacked into the DoD and found info on the B2?

it wouldnt surprise me if it was an ordinary person and not the KGB or something like that

[-martin- 10]

Hi all

The question is who is doing it?

Walker

Well when it first happened to the centrifuges in Iran I was more or less convinced that either Israel of the US was responsible for writing the virus because it occurred at a time when tensions were high, and it seemed quite logical.

BUT at the same time something also told me, that if another country seized this opportunity it would be a really good way to add fuel to the fire and make it seem like the West was behind it to provoke Iran.

Another thing I thought is that maybe Iran did it themselves to make it seem like the West did it, possibly to test their security systems because the information needed to write it was very in depth, someone had to know the plant.

This makes me speculate that maybe Iran attacked the drones with the virus because they have recently unveiled their own home made drone.

Other theories:

Another speculation is that Russia is behind it because they are in the process of reviving their military and their drones are lagging a bit behind, so they could use information from US drones to learn or to develop some kind of system to take control of US drones if they needed to. But this isn't very likely, however it would be more likely for China.

India could possibly be on the list or another possibility is that the US did it themselves to test security or artificially rise tensions with Iran again, because just as in Iran’s case, I assume that you would need to know quite a lot about US drones, but US and Iran can’t both use the same virus to infect themselves...

In other words, I'm not sure

[[aps]gnat 28]

There a plenty of smart people, organisations and nations who would PAY & invest for such a breach to be opened and either maintained or milked for all they could.

Sure .... it could still be "a 16 year old hacker" ;)

Future war WILL increasing be fought via 1's and 0's

[dysta 10]

Other theories:

In reality, all the military transferred signals are mostly encrypted with specific cipher. Even they could capture the signal, they're still in a deep pain to find out how to decipher without both being detected, and need the same source to decrypt the signal.

For the case that will maim the system of the UAV, it's more like jamming than taking control or even stealing with hacking. Jamming is only required by the negative-wave broadcasting to compensate the signal feed, it works like a IED-jammer used with the Humvee.

[max power 21]

Hi all

The question is who is doing it?

Walker

I think it's fairly obvious that P8H8 are the culprits.

In reality, all the military transferred signals are mostly encrypted with specific cipher. Even they could capture the signal, they're still in a deep pain to find out how to decipher without both being detected, and need the same source to decrypt the signal.

For the case that will maim the system of the UAV, it's more like jamming than taking control or even stealing with hacking. Jamming is only required by the negative-wave broadcasting to compensate the signal feed, it works like a IED-jammer used with the Humvee.

They weren't encrypted when people were receiving their video feeds using satellite tv technology.

[-GR-Operative 10]

Skynet. It's just starting...

[Maio 293]

As long as they don't start lunching hellfires at friendly units...

[instagoat 133]

Cyber Warfare will become more important in the future, along with economic warfare. Any buildup to a potential WW3 would be featuring a lot of this, so I hope BI are taking note of these occurances and maybe building some of this into their own stories.

As for the real life, wow, this sucks. I guess the security systems will need to be overhauled after this...

[PELHAM 10]

It will have been introduced by someone working at the base. No doubt via a removable drive, USB or CD with some photos, screen savers, videos or music that somebody wanted to listen too at work.

Has any info leaked? No evidence of that yet.

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

Meh. I know China has pretty much copied the Predator. Maybe they are gathering information on how we use ours so they can use theirs better? With the added benefit of some free intel provided by the U.S. Airforce.

:)

Edited October 8, 2011 by Darkhorse 1-6

[Dwarden 1125]

i laughed so hard when i read this 'news' some days ago ...

1. it shows they use windows (the hint about kaspersky and virus come bacK)

2. it shows they don't run these windows in VM on nix box

3. the mention of usage of some software to securely erase file was double laugh

(what does have secure erase with full harddisk format)

cause You can't erase virus via delete file if You have MBR rootkit

from the news it sounds like there is serious lack of usage of antivirus /security software and 'security' experts ...

[dysta 10]

Meh. I know China has pretty much copied the Predator. Maybe they are gathering information on how we use ours so they can use theirs better? With the added benefit of some free intel provided by the U.S. Airforce.

:)

Well, how similar between Uncle P. (Predator) and Ching P. (Pterosaur)?

[Tonci87 163]

i laughed so hard when i read this 'news' some days ago ...

1. it shows they use windows (the hint about kaspersky and virus come bacK)

2. it shows they don't run these windows in VM on nix box

3. the mention of usage of some software to securely erase file was double laugh

(what does have secure erase with full harddisk format)

cause You can't erase virus via delete file if You have MBR rootkit

from the news it sounds like there is serious lack of usage of antivirus /security software and 'security' experts ...

Seems like someone wanted to save money :rolleyes:

[walker 0]

Hi all

Actually there is no motivation for the contractor to save money on this under cost plus. The maximum profit is in raising the cost. That is why COTS is a superior procurement system. Buy and apply commercially available MBR and rootkit protection.

Oh and employ professional computer security staff who understand how viruses work.

On a practcal level the brute force methods allways work read: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218062/Microsoft_clarifies_MBR_rootkit_removal_advice

My own two pence worth boot from a write once CD or other physical drive. And use a secure Norton ghost file to recover.

Kind regards walker

Edited October 9, 2011 by walker
I hate predictve text and tablets!

[binkster 0]

Maybe they were just browsing the web on the system and recieved a virus the old fashion way??

[maturin 12]

Maybe they were just browsing the web on the system and recieved a virus the old fashion way??

I suppose having U.S. drones surfing the internet would explain a lot of youtube commenters' behavior.

[hellfire257 3]

I suppose having U.S. drones surfing the internet would explain a lot of youtube commenters' behavior.

I LOLed.

[nodunit 397]

Well, how similar between Uncle P. (Predator) and Ching P. (Pterosaur)?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38503190/7e299ba5-aaf2-4d8c-ade5-dcaf21193817.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38503190/f6eae0de-ad65-41fc-a087-7313b1ee0b7d.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38503190/b07bb235-a18f-4149-84df-11d2d96b79d9.jpg

I've heard of copying but usually they make a few changes and are a bit more..subtle. O_o

[Baff1 0]

The history of war is littered with cracked codes.