Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.
But we just don't know. Military network security specialists aren't sure whether the virus and its so-called "keylogger" payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks.
The specialists don't know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech.
That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command. Drones have become America's tool of choice in both its conventional and shadow wars, allowing U. Since President Obama assumed office, a fleet of approximately 30 CIA-directed drones have hit targets in Pakistan more than times ; all told, these drones have killed more than 2, suspected militants and civilians , according to the Washington Post.
More than additional Predator and Reaper drones, under U. Air Force control, watch over the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. American military drones struck 92 times in Libya between mid-April and late August. And late last month, an American drone killed top terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki -- part of an escalating unmanned air assault in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabian peninsula.
And late last month, an American drone killed top terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki -- part of an escalating unmanned air assault in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabian peninsula.
But despite their widespread use, the drone systems are known to have security flaws. Many Reapers and Predators don't encrypt the video they transmit to American troops on the ground. In the summer of , U. The lion's share of U. In a nondescript building, down a largely unmarked hallway, is a series of rooms, each with a rack of servers and a "ground control station," or GCS.
There, a drone pilot and a sensor operator sit in their flight suits in front of a series of screens. In the pilot's hand is the joystick, guiding the drone as it soars above Afghanistan, Iraq, or some other battlefield. Some of the GCSs are classified secret, and used for conventional warzone surveillance duty. The GCSs handling more exotic operations are top secret. None of the remote cockpits are supposed to be connected to the public internet.
Which means they are supposed to be largely immune to viruses and other network security threats. But time and time again, the so-called "air gaps" between classified and public networks have been bridged, largely through the use of discs and removable drives. In late , for example, the drives helped introduce the agent. The Pentagon is still disinfecting machines , three years later.
Drones have become an extremely popular and useful militia weapon in recent times. Drones are extremely precise. Drone strikes and covert operations have greatly weakened the terror network and could aid in a faster withdrawal from the Middle East altogether.
The video recordings drones pick up during missions, to then transmit to American troops on the ground for surveillance and covert mission tactics, are not encrypted. This gave the enemy knowledge of when and where the Americans would strike.
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