“Conficker” is a computer virus targeting the Microsoft Windows based systems that was first detected in October 2008. The worm uses a combination of advanced malware techniques which has made it nearly impossible to detect and counter.

But the real question is “How a €64 million,  state of the art,  Military jet was grounded by a computer virus ???”…

The Dassault Rafale is a twin-engined,  highly agile and maneuverable  Multi-role fighter aircraft designed and built by the Dassault Aviation. The aircraft has a delta wing design. Several countries have shown great amount of interest in buying this aircraft.

Some of the most important systems of French Navy were affected by the virus, and thus hindering their ability to carryout their regular operations. The conficker virus entered their systems and disabled Microsoft windows services i.e security center, personal Firewall and windows update. After that the virus connected to some other servers and started downloading other viruses and malwares. This was clearly a military network security compromise. The Rafale jets were unable to get their data routes and Flight plans and thus stayed on ground.

But why did it occur ? Microsoft warned in october 2008 that Conficker can affect its operating systems, and it released security updates and patches on 15 0ctober, 2008. Unfortunately the French Navy didn’t install these updates on their systems and whole of their system integrity was compromised. As a result of the virus proliferation, the navy had to cut all its communication systems for some time and relied just on phone calls, post and other methods.

Soon the Military recovered from the virus and re-enabled all its systems. We hope that such a security compromise will not occur in the future.

Originally posted 2009-04-25 04:01:33. Republished by Old Post Promoter