NASA has confirmed that laptops taken on to the International Space Station (ISS) carried the W32.Gammima.AG virus, which steals the login details for online games popular in the Far East, such as “Maple Story” and “Talesweaver.” NASA calls the virus a “nuisance,” and says it’s on “non-critical” laptops. NASA says it is unclear which country brought the virus-infected laptop onboard the International Space Station. Perhaps you’ve seen this movie: A virus infects a human-piloted spacecraft, and within days the mission is compromised and Earth is lost to the alien attackers. There’s now a report that the first part of that storyline has come true — only it’s a computer virus on the International Space Station.Space-oriented Web site SpaceRef.com has reported that a
laptop aboard the International Space Station has become infected with a Level 0 virus, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that a virus was carried aboard.
W32.Gammima.AG – first detected a year ago – sends the personal data it collects back to a central server. The bug, considered low-risk by anti-virus firm Symantec, is not thought to be a threat to the control and command system, or to any ISS operations. The mystery is how the virus managed to hitch an unpaid ride on the most expensive vehicle in or out of this world. The virus was found on more than one laptop in the space station. No word on whether the infection was laptop-to-laptop, through an intranet or a USB drive, but the evidence points to a drive. NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries noted that the agency has previously had to deal with virus control as one of the threats in space, although specifics weren’t given. “It’s not a frequent occurrence,” Humphries said, “but this isn’t the first time.” The laptops did not have any anti-virus protection or detection systems loaded, she said. They were being used to run nutrition experiment programs and gave astronauts email access. Humphries indicated that all files and applications are scanned for viruses before going into space. When asked if command or control systems are connected to the same network as the infected devices, thus possibly compromising their performance, Humphries told news media that he didn’t know and, even if he did, “wouldn’t be able to tell you for IT security reasons.” Some observers have speculated that the laptops do not carry the kind of antivirus software that could have prevented infection, because the lack of a direct Internet connection made NASA conclude that infection was unlikely. NASA is investigating the problem with its Russian counterparts to see where it stemmed from and to learn what measures can be taken to prevent a repeat of the situation.
NASA has confirmed that laptops taken on to the International Space Station (ISS) carried the W32.Gammima.AG virus, which steals the login details for online games popular in the Far East, such as “Maple Story” and “Talesweaver.” NASA calls the virus a “nuisance,” and says it’s on “non-critical” laptops. NASA says it is unclear which country brought the virus-infected laptop onboard the International Space Station. Perhaps you’ve seen this movie: A virus infects a human-piloted spacecraft, and within days the mission is compromised and Earth is lost to the alien attackers. There’s now a report that the first part of that storyline has come true — only it’s a computer virus on the International Space Station.Space-oriented Web site SpaceRef.com has reported that a laptop aboard the International Space Station has become infected with a Level 0 virus, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that a virus was carried aboard. W32.Gammima.AG – first detected a year ago – sends the personal data it collects back to a central server. The bug, considered low-risk by anti-virus firm Symantec, is not thought to be a threat to the control and command system, or to any ISS operations. The mystery is how the virus managed to hitch an unpaid ride on the most expensive vehicle in or out of this world. The virus was found on more than one laptop in the space station. No word on whether the infection was laptop-to-laptop, through an intranet or a USB drive, but the evidence points to a drive. NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries noted that the agency has previously had to deal with virus control as one of the threats in space, although specifics weren’t given. “It’s not a frequent occurrence,” Humphries said, “but this isn’t the first time.” The laptops did not have any anti-virus protection or detection systems loaded, she said. They were being used to run nutrition experiment programs and gave astronauts email access. Humphries indicated that all files and applications are scanned for viruses before going into space. When asked if command or control systems are connected to the same network as the infected devices, thus possibly compromising their performance, Humphries told news media that he didn’t know and, even if he did, “wouldn’t be able to tell you for IT security reasons.” Some observers have speculated that the laptops do not carry the kind of antivirus software that could have prevented infection, because the lack of a direct Internet connection made NASA conclude that infection was unlikely. NASA is investigating the problem with its Russian counterparts to see where it stemmed from and to learn what measures can be taken to prevent a repeat of the situation.
