{
  "id": 14672717,
  "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",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-10-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "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": "US Air Force pilots have been using malware-laden USB drives for planning missions in Afghanistan, according to Justin Henkel, the CISO of IT monitoring and service company SolarWinds. Henkel, who previously worked in IT security for the Air Force, noticed a concerning practice in the early 2000s - pilots would use both classified and unclassified systems to transfer mission data. They would write CDs, which they would then use in both unclassified and classified systems before loading them into aircraft for navigation and threat information. When thumb drives replaced CDs, pilots continued to use them without fully understanding the risks. They would often purchase these drives from local vendors in cities like Kabul, rather than through official military contractors. This lack of understanding of the potential threat led to the 2008 malware infection in the US Department of Defense, which took the Pentagon 14 months to remove from its systems. This incident led to a ban on USB drives, which were only allowed again in 2010 under certain circumstances.",
  "summary": "The term military intelligence seems like an oxymoron in this case",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "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",
        "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."
}