Space Station laptops catch "nuisance" virus
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 27th 2008 1:26PM
posted August 27th 2008 1:26PM
While it doesn't appear to be nearly as serious as some of the computer problems the International Space Station has faced, it looks like a virus has managed to find its way onto some of the laptops used on the Station, which NASA is now describing only as a "nuisance." According to SpaceRef.com, the virus is the W32.Gammima.AG worm, which is normally used to swipe sensitive information for online games. As Wired's Threat Level reports, the worm has also spread to more than one laptop on the Space Station, which would seem to suggest that it has either been spread via an on-board intranet, or via a thumb drive. Somewhat disconcertingly, when asked by Threat Level if any mission critical systems were connected to the same network as the laptops, NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries simply said, "I don't know and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to tell you for IT security reasons."[Via Threat Level, thanks a.c.e.r.]
@Andres:
Space Shuttle Coke Machine:
http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum14/HTML/000692.html
I would honestly hope to god that windows isn't used for official NASA business, such as science. I regularly boot up windows, Linux, and OS X as a student IT support worker and Comp sci major, so I am not a fanboy. Having said this, OSs all have their time and place, and windows should not be used for scientific space work. I have always assumed that NASA would use some form of customized unix. Because I trust NASA as officials, I would assume that these windows laptops are personal computers for the astronauts, which were connected to the network(a bad idea I think).
The title gave false hope to a space-borne-computer-virus. Now I find out it's just human stupidity. T.T
Yeah...
Should they have their own *NIX operating system???
They should. This is only indicative of how pathetic NASA's budget is these days. I mean, $17.3B? We'll have spent about 170x that on one 6-year operation in Iraq.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: MORE $$ TO NASA PLZ.
I work at NASA and can say no we do not use MS Windows on important systems ;)
The laptops they bring with them are not critical to or connect to the ISS systems in any way.
See you guys have it wrong. The aliens watched ID4 and got the idea to infect us with a virus. It starts on the space station and goes from there. we are doomed.
So you mean they use W32 as their OS of choice???
Talk about an EPIC FAIL!
All of you guys are a bunch of dorks.
Nasa wouldn't have any critical systems hooked up to Windows. Maybe for some experiments and other things, but, otherwise there was an article saying that they use lower-end laptops that use less power in the space stations for their own amusement. Videos, pictures, e-mail and such.
Don't expect the ISS to be falling from the sky because of the blue screen of death or something stupid anytime soon.
I think what do they really need is a
Norton Antivirus & Spyware Space-ial Edition
No, they probably just need a regular anti-virus software on their laptops...
I've heard that Nasa uses Lenovo's Thinkpad !
So it might be an ordinary computer running Windows right?
So sad they are not using Apple OsX
I bet the writer of that virus is pretty fucking stoked right now.
aren't thinkpads the only notebooks certified for spaceflight, according to Lenovo?
therefore, ThinkVantage recovery button should have done the job ;)
Osama bin Laden is at it again!