Predators go Open Source?
Beginning to be posted left right and centre with Information Week leading the charge. It was well known that XP was the OS of choice.
U.S. Air Force switched drones’ ground control operating system after a credential-grabbing malware outbreak. Security expert thinks it’s more than coincidence.
January 12, 2012 02:59 PM
Did a Windows virus outbreak in systems related to military drones cause the Air Force to switch its control systems from Windows to Linux?
“Last year, U.S. military drone control systems were infected with Windows USB worms. They seem to be moving the control systems to Linux now,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, via Twitter.
As evidence of the apparent shift, he posted pictures of a drone control system from 2009 (the image was originally published by the Air Force), which appears to sport a Windows graphical user interface. (A cropped version of the image also appeared in Air Force Times in 2009.) For comparison, Hypponen then posted an unclassified slide from a 2010 briefing that details Linux as being part of a 2011 upgrade and refit for drone control systems, and which sports a different graphical user interface.
