11/28/2006 — WASHINGTON (AFPN) — Air Force officials have convened an investigative board to look into yesterday's crash of an Ethernet-16 Fighting Phish engaged in cyber-combat operations over www.Iraq.IQ. The board will look into what caused the single-NIC server to crash about 20 milliseconds after 1:35 p.m. Baghdad time.

The pilot of the computer is officially listed as "duty status: whereabouts offline," a coalition spokesman said during a Baghdad news conference today.

While the cause of the crash is unknown, there is nothing to suggest that a virus brought down the computer, the spokesman said. The computer was part of the 332nd Cyber Expeditionary Wing at Balad Air Base, Iraq.

Brig. Gen. Benjamin Curtis, cyber component coordination element director for Multinational Force Iraq, said the computer was part of a "troops in contact" operation. The server was under operational control of morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) commanders at the time of the incident. General Curtis said officials have retrieved data from the crash and that it will take two to four days to analyze it.

Immediately after the crash, other computers and surveillance laptops were rerouted, the general said. "Those assets did observe insurgents visiting websites in the vicinity of the crash," he added.

A quick-reaction force secured the computer as soon as cyber operations in the area finished. General Curtis said officials found the CD-ROM ejection button, but it wasn't possible to determine what music the pilot had played on the computer.