US tastes Die Hard reality

The US Air Force has denied reports that a recent malware incident affected remotely piloted aircraft operations.

According to a statement, the Air Force says the malware was detected on portable hard drives and isolated. It says the computers infected were part of the ground control systems that support the RFA operations, but are separate to the flight control system.

The Air Force also denied the malware was a “keylogger”, as reported by Wired. “The malware in question is a credential stealer, not a keylogger, found routinely on computer networks, and is considered more of a nuisance than an operational threat,” the Air Force says.

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, stresses this is not the first time drones have made the headlines due to security issues. He likened the incident to a real-life version of Die Hard 4, adding that “making an action film these days about cyber warfare is a tricky and delicate business - between a pre-release trailer and the release of a movie, the script can be played out, not in the cinemas, but on the evening news”.

Furthermore, he says computer networks control many vital infrastructure elements. He also warns that we can expect malware to penetrate essential equipment on which lives depend in the future.

Kaspersky says there is no quick solution, as it would entail full protection, which he says is impossible, or ceasing to use these systems, which would leave us “jettisoned back to the first half of the last century, or even further back in time”, he says.

Roel Schouwenberg, senior anti-virus researcher at Kaspersky Lab, says it is unlikely that this was a targeted attack. Instead, he suggests the infection was caused by “standard” malware created by regular cyber-criminals. “So the malware was created with financial gain in mind, and just happened to infect that machine,” Schouwenberg concludes.

Uri Rivner, head of New Technologies for Identity Protection at RSA, says that while there have been several attacks on critical infrastructure, these are a long way off from “doomsday scenarios of cyber terrorism”.

“We are yet to see a significant cyber terror attack on a nation's critical infrastructure, a digital version of September 11,” he says.

Rivner says that while both the technical capability and the desire to target the West are a reality, this sort of operation would require “careful planning, a high degree of co-ordination, significant funding, and relevant know-how”. He adds, however, that terrorists are using cyber crime to fund other operations.

Moreover, he warns: “No country can say they don't need to invest in cyber defences, and many governments or countries are under attack.”