Keylogger virus infects drone plane command centre

The hot news on the blogosphere at the moment is the revelation that a Keylogger virus has infected the drone plane command centre at Creech air force base in Nevada.

Keylogging (or Keystroke logging) is the action of tracking (or logging) the keys struck on the keyboard, typically in a covert manner so that the person using the keyboard is unaware. The Keylogger virus is used to capture users’ passwords, credit card details and bank account numbers as people type them in. The data is then sent over the web to fraudsters. Security officials are currently unable to completely remove the virus, as it keeps reinstalling itself, suggesting that the attack vector has not been plugged.

Creech air force base in Nevada is the command centre for the remotely piloted aircraft used in Afghanistan including the Predator drone spyplane-bomber. The Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system which is used in Afghanistan and, more controversially, across the border in Pakistan.

This is the latest security breach for the hi-tech remotely piloted vehicle system; the US military has previously found out that Iraqi insurgents were able to capture and record the footage being sent to troops and back to the airbase by cameras on the drones. The insurgents hacked into video feeds, which were not encrypted, using a $26 piece of Russian software named SkyGrabber. Apparently The encryption for the feeds were removed for performance reasons.