Comment Re:This virus can't be a thread with no Internet. (Score 1) 74
Have you forgotten about Stuxnet?
That virus was designed to sabotage industrial equipment that was not connected to internet. It was designed to propagate though removable drives and local networks. And Stuxnet did reach its target and sabotaged it successfully without even causing suspicion.
Imagine that the Chinese/Russians modify Stuxnet (I've read it is quite modular) to infiltrate the UAV control. Imagine that they add module that activates only when the drone enters GPS coordinates of China/Russia. This module could do a number of nasty things. Turning on active radar, so that the drone would shine like a super nova on the radar. Increase the chance of drone crashing. Introduce slight error in missile target coordinates and always hit few hundred feet off the target.
Just the radar thing would be enough disaster. In peaceful time the enemy may decide to ignore it and just track the path of the drone (and hide). In armed conflict, there are missiles that use the radar signal for target homing. It's very likely that a great number of the drones would be destroyed before somebody realizes that the enemy doesn't have miracle super secret drone tracking technology.