Fergie's Tech Blog

Virus Infects Space Station Laptops (Again)

Ryan Singel writes on Threat Level:

Viruses intended to steal passwords and send them to a remote server infected laptops in the International Space Station in July, NASA confirmed Tuesday.

And according to NASA, this wasn't the first infection.

"This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. "It's not a frequent occurrence, but this isn't the first time."

That suggests that even in the future where space travel becomes an experience to complain about, rather than get dressed up for, computer viruses will still be tagging along uninvited.

NASA declined to name the virus, but SpaceDef.com, which broke the story, reported that the worm was W32.Gammima.AG worm - a worm first detected in August 2007 that installs software that steals credentials for online games.

posted by Fergie @ 8/26/2008 11:46:00 AM