Posted on 08/27/2008 11:14:59 PM PDT by Schnucki
A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS).
Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG.
The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games.
Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.
Orbital outbreak
Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS.
Nasa told SpaceRef that no command or control systems of the ISS were at risk from the malicious program.
The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth.
The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection.
Once it has scooped up passwords and login names the Gammima.AG worm virus tries to send them back to a central server. It targets a total of 10 games most of which are popular in the Far East such as Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver.
Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I’m afraid if we also sent in a copy of MS VISTA, aliens who download and study the OS would look down on us as “inferior species”.
Figures, a government operation wouldn’t have the most basic antivirus program on their friggin SPACE STATION!!!
If they would have used Macs or loaded Linux on the laptops, they wouldn’t be having these problems!
Wherever MS-Windows goes, viruses soon follow.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.