Computer viruses make it to orbit

Dashken · 28th Aug 2008, 05:19 PM

WTF?

Quote:

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.

The ISS has no direct net connection and all data traffic travelling from the ground to the spacecraft is scanned before being transmitted.

It is thought that the virus might have travelled via a flash or USB drive owned by an astronaut and taken into space.

The space agency also plans to put in place security systems to stop such incidents happening in the future.

Nasa told Wired News that viruses had infected laptops taken to the ISS on several occasions but the outbreaks had always only been a "nuisance".

Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Computer viruses make it to orbit

Adrian Wong · 28th Aug 2008, 09:33 PM

It targets 10 games and it's in the notebook?

I'll bet one of those 10 games was in the notebook earlier, if they have not erased it yet.

iModAMD · 29th Aug 2008, 10:03 AM

Hope thoses viruses will not hack aliens computers rofl

ZuePhok · 29th Aug 2008, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iModAMD

Hope thoses viruses will not hack aliens computers rofl

imagine, if Gammima.AG. pissed the alien off.. we would be dead

peaz · 29th Aug 2008, 05:26 PM

LOL. maybe it was our dear space tourist who decided to play some games to pass time since he's nothing to do there but waste precious oxygen and drink teh tarik

lee_what2004 · 29th Aug 2008, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZuePhok

imagine, if Gammima.AG. pissed the alien off.. we would be dead

that would mean those alien plays earth games also

28th Aug 2008, 09:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 32,208 Reputation: 3531 Rep Power: 75	It targets 10 games and it's in the notebook? I'll bet one of those 10 games was in the notebook earlier, if they have not erased it yet. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

29th Aug 2008, 10:03 AM	#3 (permalink)
iModAMD Warming up Join Date: 14 Apr 2008 Location: Montr?al,Qu?bec,Canada Posts: 147 Reputation: 71 Rep Power: 2	Hope thoses viruses will not hack aliens computers rofl __________________ ---Stealth-Box--- Case: Antec Sonata 3 / Mobo: Gigabyte MA790FX-DQ6 / CPU : AMD ATHLON X2 6000+ w/t Zalman 9700 / GPU : ATI 4850 / Ram: (4X2GB) OCZ AM2 Optimised DDR2-667 / PSU: Antec EarthWatts 500W / HDDs:4X Western Digital 250GB 2500 AAKS SATA2 (RAID 0) / Mouse:Logitech MX1000 / Keyboard: Logitech G11 / Speakers: Altec Lansing Satelite 300.1 (2.1) + Creative CS 120 (2.0)

29th Aug 2008, 05:26 PM	#5 (permalink)
peaz ARP Webmaster Join Date: 13 Oct 2002 Location: http://atpeaz.placidthoughts.com/ Posts: 8,582 Reputation: 1673 Rep Power: 32	LOL. maybe it was our dear space tourist who decided to play some games to pass time since he's nothing to do there but waste precious oxygen and drink teh tarik __________________ Ken Ng Tech ARP Follow me at Twitter Shoot and Earn Money from Stock Photography

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