A few weeks ago was Creech air force base in Nevada, computer security experts on a virus on your network. The virus was recording every keystroke, the pilots of the air force, remotely operate the predator and Reaper drones that fly in war zones. And they may not seem so far, wipe the virus from the system. Guy Raz talks with Noah Shachtman, editor of Wired magazine, which first reported the story.
Copyright © 2011 national public radio ®. For personal, non-commercial use. See terms and conditions. For other uses, the prior approval required.GUY RAZ, host: a few weeks ago at Creech air force base in Nevada, computer security experts came on a virus on their network. And they were alarmed to discover that the virus was recording every keystroke, the pilots of the air force, the terminals at the base to sit. Remote computer stations, of which they predator and Reaper drones on places like Afghanistan and Pakistan control. And they may not seem so far, wipe the virus from the system.
Noah Shachtman reported this story first. He is an editor at Wired magazine, and he is in our Bureau of New York. Noah, welcome.
NOAH SHACHTMAN: thank you for me to have.
RAZ: On the one hand they say this virus us more about what apparently.
SHACHTMAN: It's called a key logger and records keystrokes people. And this is important, because the way that pilots with guys on the ground drone communicate via instant messenger. And so, when you all record this information, that secret stuff. And if that is to the outside that's bad.
RAZ: Es war games all sounds very. Meaning this virus has the potential to command one of these drones take?
SHACHTMAN: Look, there is a good chance, maybe only an accident. OK, happens is a virus, to jump to a military network from computer to computer. This is a deliberate violation of the network, it is a way to bring information not from any system.
RAZ: But what could win any of the keystrokes of this pilot?
SHACHTMAN: You can't win how to run drone operations in countries such as Afghanistan and perhaps even more secret locations. You can read how the drones and the guys on the floor together work. There are a lot of stuff.
RAZ: I know that the story has only broken and that there isn't much information there. But what's your point, who or what might be behind it? Mean I pranksters, a foreign Government?
SHACHTMAN: I don't think that we still know. The military runs on same computers that we use every day at our desks. And so, as we catch viruses on our computers, do military computer.
RAZ: This is a terrible idea, except that their networks, my understanding was, are closed.
SHACHTMAN: Right. But in practice, what is happening, guys benefit, these external drives to transport data from closed, networks, open networks, which connect to the Internet. And back and forth, infections happen transporting this information.
RAZ: Noah is now this is not, was the first time drone information intercepted, isn't it?
SHACHTMAN: No, not at all. It turns out the drones of the early 2000s rushed into operation, really,. They bypassed transmit their video feed a sort key of military security, which is the drones, you know what it from the sky to see. You send without encryption, so that, if someone can watch with a correct receiver close to see what the drones. And so we found in Iraq, in 2009, that militant days and days worth of drone footage on their hard disks.
RAZ:, of course, the has now been changed. This is encrypted, now, isn't it?
SHACHTMAN: No.
RAZ: Well, that's the theory, non-secure information.
SHACHTMAN: right. It changes slowly, but it has not changed, you know, completely, but. Two reasons, need for encryption, you have a encrypted sender and a recipient of encrypted. There are hundreds of these recipients spread on US forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere. And, you know, the drone itself constantly fly missions and they want to take too many of them offline.
And so, the US military has to play, that is, that it not too many technologically demanding militant directly under the drones to be nasal. And therefore so, want it remain unencrypted broadcast.
RAZ: That's Noah Shachtman. He is an editor at Wired magazine. Noah, thank you.
SHACHTMAN: thank you for me to have.
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