{
  "id": 14670559,
  "title": "US Air Force pilots used malware-laden USB drives to plan Afghanistan missions",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/us-air-force-pilots-used-malware-laden-usb-drives-to-plan-afghanistan",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register Science",
    "slug": "the-register-science",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/15/us-air-force-pilots-used-malware-laden-usb-drives-to-plan-afghanistan-missions/5303156"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the early 2000s, US Air Force pilots utilized malware-laden USB drives to plan Afghanistan missions, according to Justin Henkel, CISO at SolarWinds. Before USB drives gained popularity, mission data was stored on CDs and transferred between unclassified and classified systems. Henkel, who previously worked in IT security for the Air Force, observed pilots using both unclassified and classified systems with the same USB drives, unaware of the risks involved. He noted that many pilots purchased these drives from local vendors in Kabul instead of official military contractors. The practice proved problematic when malware infected the US Department of Defense in 2008, following the attachment of an infected USB drive to a laptop with access to US Central Command. It took the Pentagon 14 months to eradicate the malware from its systems. Following this incident, USB drives were banned from US military use in 2008, but were later permitted under certain conditions in 2010.",
  "summary": "The term military intelligence seems like an oxymoron in this case",
  "key_points": [
    "US Air Force pilots used malware-infected USB drives for Afghanistan missions in early 2000s.",
    "Pilots transferred mission data between unclassified and classified systems via USB drives.",
    "Malware incident in 2008 took 14 months to eradicate from US Department of Defense systems."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register",
        "title": "US Air Force pilots used malware-laden USB drives to plan Afghanistan missions",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/us-air-force-pilots-used-malware-laden-usb-drives-to-plan-afghanistan-14672717",
        "published": "2026-10-15T10:30:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}