Air Force Says Drone Virus Is No Threat

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/231900741

By Elizabeth Montalbano
InformationWeek
October 13, 2011

A virus that attacked the system that controls U.S. military drones was 
never an operational threat, but merely a "nuisance," the Air Force said 
late Wednesday.

The statement was the first official one from the U.S. military after 
Wired first reported of the virus last Friday.

The Air Force said it released the statement "to correct recent 
reporting" of the malware, which was being characterized as a real 
security threat to the flight of drone aircraft and difficult to 
contain. It was also reported that the virus may have removed data from 
Air Force classified and unclassified networks.

The Air Force said, however, that these depictions of the virus are 
false. The military was aware of the infection for some time and 
"control of our remotely piloted aircraft was never in question," said 
colonel Kathleen Cook, a spokesperson for Air Force Space Command, said 
in a statement.

[...]


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