Air Force base failed to promptly report drone virus

Officials at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada knew for two weeks about a virus that infected the operation of drones flown remotely from the base in war zones in Southwestern Asia, but they chose not to inform Air Force cybersecurity officials about the situation, Noah Shachtman reports at Wired's Danger Room blog.

The network defenders at the 24th Air Force responsible for maintaining a tight virtual perimeter around the Air Force's networks and systems did not learn about the virus, which records keystrokes of remote pilots as they navigate drones over battlefields in Afghanistan and other hot spots, until the cyber specialists read about it last week in the blog.  

The virus, which has apparently not damaged any of the system associated with the remotely piloted aircraft or transmitted sensitive data outside the military chain of command, is now receiving high level attention in the Air Force and an investigation is underway.