[Infowarrior] - French fighter planes grounded by computer virus

[Richard Forno]

French fighter planes grounded by computer virus

French fighter planes were unable to take off after military computers  
were infected by a computer virus, an intelligence magazine claims.


by Kim Willsher in Paris
Last Updated: 9:52PM GMT 07 Feb 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4547649/French-fighter-planes-grounded-by-computer-virus.html


The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after  
databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had already been  
warned about several months beforehand.

At one point French naval staff were also instructed not to even open  
their computers.

Microsoft had warned that the "Conficker" virus, transmitted through  
Windows, was attacking computer systems in October last year, but  
according to reports the French military ignored the warning and  
failed to install the necessary security measures.

The French newspaper Ouest France said the virus had hit the internal  
computer network at the French Navy.

Jérome Erulin, French navy spokesman told the paper: "It affected  
exchanges of information but no information was lost. It was a  
security problem we had already simulated. We cut the communication  
links that could have transmitted the virus and 99 per cent of the  
network is safe."

However, the French navy admitted that during the time it took to  
eradicate the virus, it had to return to more traditional forms of  
communication: telephone, fax and post.

Naval officials said the "infection"' was probably due more to  
negligence than a deliberate attempt to compromise French national  
security. It said it suspected someone at the navy had used an  
infected USB key.

The Sicmar Network, on which the most sensitive documents and  
communications are transmitted was not touched, it said. "The computer  
virus problem had no effect on the availability of our forces." The  
virus attacked the non-secured internal French navy network called  
Intramar and was detected on 21 January. The whole network was  
affected and military staff were instructed not to start their  
computers.

According to Liberation newspaper, two days later the chiefs of staff  
decided to isolate Intramar from the military's other computer  
systems, but certain computers at the Villacoublay air base and in the  
8th Transmissions Regiment were infected. Liberation reported that on  
the 15 and 16 January the Navy's Rafale aircraft were "nailed to the  
ground" because they were unable to "download their flight plans". The  
aircraft were eventually activated by "another system".

Liberation also reported that Microsoft had identified the Conficker  
virus in the autumn of 2008 and had advised users from October last  
year to update their security patches. IntelligenceOnline reports that  
"at the heart of the (French) military, the modifications were, for  
the most part, not done." It was only on the 16 January "three months  
later" that the navy chiefs of staffs began to act.

"At that point, the chiefs of staff and the defence ministry had no  
idea how many computers or military information systems were  
vulnerable to having been contaminated by the virus," said Liberation.

The French press also reported that the only consolation for the  
French Navy was that it was not the only ones to have fallen victim to  
the virus. It said that a report in the military review Defense Tech  
revealed that in the first days of January 2009 the British Defence  
Ministry had been attacked by a hybrid of the virus that had  
substantially and seriously infected the computer systems of more than  
24 RAF bases and 75 per cent of the Royal Navy fleet including the  
aircraft carrier Ark Royal.