Windows Virus Grounds French Air Force (MSFT)
Eric Krangel | February 8, 2009 3:02 PM

Not keeping up with those Microsoft-issued (MSFT) security updates? Consider this: The French Air Force failed to keep its anti-virus software up to date, and as a result the "Conficker" virus put several Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft out of commission.

Liberation has the story, translated by CNET:

Apparently in the past two weeks, some French fighter planes were grounded because the military had failed to take sufficient action (even though Microsoft had sent advance warning) to prevent the spread of a Windows-transmitted virus that some call Conficker and the Liberation journalist, Jean-Dominique Merchet, calls Conflicter..

Intelligence Online (paywall) insists that the incident "raises serious questions about the security of French military networks and their capacity to fight off computer attacks."

Incapacitated jet aircraft are one thing, but recently the British Royal Navy moved to use Windows XP to run its nuclear submarine fleet.

Let's hope the British military is more thorough in its approach to network security than their French counterparts.