NASA recently confirmed to the space news site SpaceRef that laptops carried onto the International Space Station were infected with the Gammima.AG worm virus.
This worm was first seen a couple of years ago in August 2007 and what it does is sit around on the infected computers waiting to steal personal information such as login in details and passwords for some of the more popular online games. Apparently it targets around ten games altogether.
Once the virus has collected user names and passwords it tries to send them back to a central server.
No one yet knows how the laptops came to be infected with the virus but it is thought that it could have been transferred via a flash or USB drive personally owned by one of the astronauts.
Apparently NASA has also confirmed to the space news site SpaceRef that no command or control systems on the International Space Station were at risk as a result of the virus infected laptops. Thank goodness for that then.
The astronauts use the laptops to send emails and to run some software programmes and surprisingly, although I don’t know why I find it surprising, most of the laptops taken into space didn’t have any anti-virus software installed on them.
Crazy isn’t it, the number of unprotected laptops there is on the go and yet we are all perfectly aware that viruses can spread via USB drives and such like. Somehow you would expect laptops heading for the International Space Station to be more secure. No risks and that sort of thing.
It’s just as well it was only a low level virus and not one with a far more malicious payload. Who knows what could have happened then. What is even more surprising is that it has happened before.
“This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus. It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time,” a NASA spokesperson told Wired magazine.
Fortunately the laptops on the International Space Station have no direct connection to the net and any information sent from earth to the Space Station is scanned for viruses before it is transmitted.
From now on NASA has said they will put in place security measures on the ground to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.
Makes you wonder doesn’t it? n>
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