[nth]

If US goes to war with Iran as happened in late 1980's, very few tankers got hit. US was able to wipe out the navy and prevent any missiles from hitting the tankers. A very amazing feat, imo.

Did I miss a war somewhere? When did the US got to war against Iran? This sounds like the fictional scenario presented in Tom Clancy's book, Executive Decisions. Or are you talking about the US-Iraq War, aka Gulf War I? Iraq never had the ability to threaten Gulf tanker traffic during that conflict.

During the Iran-Iraq War of the early 1980s, Gulf oil traffic was severely disrupted and several tankers were hit with missiles. That's why the price of oil at that time hit a peak that has yet to be matched, around $90 a barrel in current dollars.

Cash, who occasionally misses a few days of newspapers but rarely misses a war.

Instead of just googling it, you link this to some fictional book?

So typical of people just ignore a war that killed millions of people.

[ColossalContrarian]

This is not something to LOL about...

Computer virus hits US Predator and Reaper drone fleet

A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other war zones.

“We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back,” says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. “We think it’s benign. But we just don’t know.”

As I said earlier, I'm willing to bet that some of the parts in these drones were made by people who don't have the US's best interest at heart...

Not saying who, or why but the fact is, these things are getting infected with malisious code and every time it gets cleaned off, the code comes back. What this tells me is that the code is hardcoded into the hardware and can't be removed unless the part with the code is removed.

[rangerone314]

However, insiders say that senior officers at Creech are being briefed daily on the virus.

“It’s getting a lot of attention,” the source says. “But no one’s panicking. Yet.”

Not until the little guys decide to take a little jaunt in the other direction, toward our lines and target our civilians.

Hopefully our missiles are not loaded with similar chips.

[ColossalContrarian]

However, insiders say that senior officers at Creech are being briefed daily on the virus.

“It’s getting a lot of attention,” the source says. “But no one’s panicking. Yet.”

Not until the little guys decide to take a little jaunt in the other direction, toward our lines and target our civilians.

Hopefully our missiles are not loaded with similar chips.

Who the f#c know's at this point? It's a complete mess....

We have "geniuses without a leash". I don't know what else to say... Few could have ever predicted an enormously terrifying game changer like technology.... This type of thing endangers the entire world and with money at stake I doubt it will end peacefully...

[ColossalContrarian]

and btw... I read a lot of scifi, that's why I don't expect it to happen any time soon... even though it eventually does...

[rangerone314]

I can just see it now... US deploys missile shield, and gets into a conflict with China. China launches some nukes and our missile shield shoots them down. Then we fire missiles to hit China, but China turns on their hardware-code and our missiles hit US cities. Then China says neener-neerner-neener!

[SGV]

Wasn't there an article a few months ago about a computer virus inflecting systems including drones but it wasn't thought to cause any problems? Anyone remember that?

it was infected, but no malicious intent have been found... supposedly.

also, a USA military airplane had to come down because North Korea used digital scrambling that messed the navigation systems.

[MD]

...

also, a USA military airplane had to come down because North Korea used digital scrambling that messed the navigation systems.

Network traffic disruption. Kill the network and the drones become useless. Today's version of signal jamming.

[seahorse3]

Well, the proof is in. The drone wasn't shot down; it apparently safely landed in Iranian territory as depicted on this Iranian video showing a very intact US top secret drone. http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/iran-releases-images-downed-u-spy-drone-171144210.html

This shows that the infamous "back door" chips which caused our drones so many keyboarding issues earlier were a precursor to our fleet flying safely to enemy hands. Our own ICBMs are probably destined to return and blow up our own cities. So, jackboots can kill alright. They can kill themselves with their own guns. So, put your bullet back in your pocket Barney.

[EnergyUnlimited]

This shows that the infamous "back door" chips which caused our drones so many keyboarding issues earlier were a precursor to our fleet flying safely to enemy hands. Our own ICBMs are probably destined to return and blow up our own cities. So, jackboots can kill alright. They can kill themselves with their own guns. So, put your bullet back in your pocket Barney.

It seems that technology is becoming more of a problem than solution.
Particularly if Iran can pull such a trick...
Try imagine what Chinese or Russians could pull out...

[seahorse3]

Yes EU. This is really interesting. It raises all kinds of fundamental questions, like the US spends more money on defense spending than the rest of the world combined, but whose military is it anyway? Whose controlling it? This has to be scaring the crap out of the Pentagon. I personally feel like the reality that just set in may have the effect of making the US take military action now. Not sure, but I think it has to be one of the scariest propositions for the US. There was an article earlier this year I believe about all the back door computer chips the US had bought from China for US missiles. What dumb ass buys military parts from your supposed "threat." Creates a new form of MADD maybe.

[seahorse3]

Here's a link to the news earlier this year the US military discovered it bought "chips" with "backdoors." Of course, we only know what little they admit. In the article, it says these chips weren't used, but if they had been, it would allow the enemy to shut systems down. Well, apparently, this latest incident shows chips like this were used and in fact, they not only shut stuff down but fly it down. Here's the link:

http://warriortimes.com/2011/07/13/defective-chips-could-have-caused-u-s-military-shut-down-by-secret-back-door/

[seahorse3]

Here's the article where the Pentagon said cyber war can be considered "act of war."

[urlhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304563104576355623135782718.html][/url]

[AgentR11]

Just speculating...

Iran "captures" drone.
Iran works to reverse engineer the software.
The software turns out to be a little more aggressive than first anticipated... but quietly...
Three months later, another Iranian facility goes booooooom.

More realistically, the thing probably just had a fatal computer hardware error and happened to glide to a stop somewhere that Iran could go pick it up. The binary image, if intact, is probably encrypted, and the machine cold; they'd get the software faster hiring random monkeys to beat on keys. The body isn't all *that* sophisticated, nothing the Russians or Chinese couldn't come up with and build on their own anyway.

Still.. embarrassing enough as is.

[dinopello]

Just speculating...

Iran "captures" drone.
Iran works to reverse engineer the software.
The software turns out to be a little more aggressive than first anticipated... but quietly...
Three months later, another Iranian facility goes booooooom.

Trojan Horse - oldie but a goodie. Very astute. Now, destroy this message...

[ColossalContrarian]

Creates a new form of MADD maybe.

Mothers Against Drunk Droning


With the volume of viruses/spyware/spam on the Internet right now, there is definitely a war going on. The warring factions may just be fighting for control of the many drone PC's belonging to a bot-net but like the atom bomb, people are beginning to realize the dangers of technology naively made by scientists, engineers, and war minded individuals... This goes well beyond military drones btw, what about naval ships, submarines, and as mentioned before, missiles and nukes.

[yeahbut]

More realistically, the thing probably just had a fatal computer hardware error and happened to glide to a stop somewhere that Iran could go pick it up.

Really? So drones just glide gently to the ground when they have a system failure.
I know nothing about drone technology, but that seems very unlikely to me.

These great PO didacts seem to think it is impossible:

Air crashes are not known for there intact fuselages. There is little to worry about this in terms of Iran.

LOL @ anyone who thinks a drone can crash at that speed and latitude intact.

If the drone didn't "glide to a stop", what are the theories on how the Iranians have landed up with a perfectly intact American spy drone? It seems hard to avoid the conclusion that the Iranians(or somebody) somehow got full control of the drone and landed it. And if that is really so- wow. There must be some very high level freaking out going on right now.

[AgentR11]

More realistically, the thing probably just had a fatal computer hardware error and happened to glide to a stop somewhere that Iran could go pick it up.

Really? So drones just glide gently to the ground when they have a system failure.
I know nothing about drone technology, but that seems very unlikely to me.

Most aircraft glide, most light weight aircraft will glide a long way, drones by definition are meant to loiter over hostile airspace for extended periods, thus they are built as absolutely lightly as possible. A drone will glide a LONG LONG way.

In addition, a little physics goes a long way, a light weight drone, will not only be gliding, but air resistance will drop its speed quite low when not under power. If you are determined to draw a parallel, if you have to pick between powered jet smashing into the ground, or balsawood glider dropped from a skyscraper, go with the glider. If it doesn't smack into the side of a cliff on the way down, an uncontrolled landing in a field or sand dune could easily leave the whole thing intact, a little paint or photoshop to conceal scuffs, and you have an undamaged vehicle to display for the amusement of all.

This seems to me to be the simplest explanation, and baring any real evidence to the contrary, Ockham's razor holds.

Does anyone here have evidence that the Iranian's gained control of the drone in flight?

No? Imagine that.

[Fiddlerdave]

Here's a link to the news earlier this year the US military discovered it bought "chips" with "backdoors." Of course, we only know what little they admit. In the article, it says these chips weren't used, but if they had been, it would allow the enemy to shut systems down. Well, apparently, this latest incident shows chips like this were used and in fact, they not only shut stuff down but fly it down. Here's the link:

http://warriortimes.com/2011/07/13/defective-chips-could-have-caused-u-s-military-shut-down-by-secret-back-door/

The iUSA is so stupid and lazy.

You can count on ALL the computer technology we buy, hard drives, motherboards, routers, and probably every other piece of hardware to have "back doors" built in more often than not

We don't know. Finding out is an IMMENSE task, much more work than making the stuff ourselves.

In reality, NO ONE is even checking!