Virus on the space station
NASA has confirmed the news that a virus has been found on one of the computers of the International Space Station.
It seems that today it is not only necessary to provide virus protection for computers used on Earth, but also for PCs circulating in space. This is supported by the fact that astronauts found malware on one of the notebooks used at the International Space Station. NASA confirmed the news about the virus, but did not want to reveal exactly what kind of computer malware got into space. However, some news sources believe that a worm called Gammima.AG has been added to the notebook.
According to NASA, the security incident occurred back on July 25, when an antivirus application on one of the notebooks detected an infection. The computer was just working with Sergey Volkov, commander of the International Space Station, who loaded digital images from a flash memory. In connection with the incident, NASA stated that all PCs in the space station are equipped with appropriate anti-virus solutions. Otherwise, Norton AntiVirus protects Windows laptops in space. Since the infection was detected, astronauts have scanned all compromised computers but found no signs of further infections.
It is not yet known how the virus got onto the computer on the space station. NASA did not want to reveal details of this, but some speculated that the malware had been released into space on a portable storage device that allegedly contained infected files.
The Gammima.AG worm has been identified by Symantec for more than a year. The main purpose of the malware, which spreads primarily through removable media, is to collect usernames and passwords from infected systems that belong to online games.
