“Nasa [sic] has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG,” BBC News reports.
MacDailyNews Note: According to Symantec, Gammima.AG is classified as a “Worm” that affects Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.
The Beeb continues, “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.”
MacDailyNews Note: Sheesh, The Beeb. “NASA” is an acronym which stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. You know, like “BBC” stands for British Broadcasting Corporation? “Nasa” is as meaningless as “Bbc.”
The Beeb continues, “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.”
MacDailyNews Take: That the Mac-lovers at NASA allow astronauts use Windows at all is amazing enough, but to not use AV software on Windows is pretty much criminal. Windows is not “mission-critical” software, NASA. Obviously, astronauts should be equipped with MacBook Air units which are safer, thinner, lighter, and better.
The Beeb continues, “Once it has scooped up passwords and login names the Gammima.AG worm virus tries to send them back to a central server… Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Switched” for the heads up.]
Worms would be better than Cholera on a space station.
You would think that with the weight of items being a priority on a Space Mission, NASA would equip all astronauts with MacBook Air’s.
Windows, a disaster waiting to happen.
Windows, when you absolutely positively need viruses overnight.
Windows, the dollar store of department stores.
Unbelievable
“Sheesh, The Beeb. “NASA” is an acronym which stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Nasa” is meaningless.”
What do you expect the BBC gave up on standards years ago.
“It can only be attributable to human error.”
“I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.”
@ Jamie,
You’re correct…at $10k/pound for launch costs, you’d think they would ditch their 10 pound Dell’s…
Now, just to complicate things, the engineers at NASA will spend another $750k just to try and clear the computers of this lame virus that probably came on board due to surfing for p.o.r.n…
I for one welcome our new worm overlords
What can you do but laugh.
The stunning part of story is that Windows laptops WITHOUT anti-virus software were allowed to fly at all.
Being NASA, I wouldn’t be surprised if those laptops were still running ME.
Lets flood the mailbox of the Uk’s Bbc with complaints!
All your laptops are belong to us.
Perhaps now NASA will reconsider all the crummy Windows machines in their entire operations.
Macs simply work.
And I agree with MDN’s take on NASA. Those are the same idiots that call Earth, “earth.”
Earth is a planet and earth is simply dirt.
The British invented English and one would have thought they would have a passable mastery of it by now!
In Russian space modules, worm invades you!
Wasn’t this how we beat our alien overlords in the movie Independence Day? Jeff Goldblum and his Mac!
Space Invaders sure has come a long way.
The BBC style guide isn’t online (that I can tell), but you can refer to the style guide published by The Guardian newspaper, which won’t differ very much from the BBC’s.
And it’s from that guide that I quote: “Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters: BBC, VAT, etc; if it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) spell out with initial capital, eg Nasa, Nato, unless it can be considered to have entered the language as an everyday word, such as awol, laser and, more recently, asbo, pin number and sim card.”
So, according to this, Nasa is correct usage — in *English*, if not in *American*.
It’s worth remembering what playwright George Bernard Shaw said: “England and America are two countries divided by a common language.”
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Simple solution. Teach all Windows laptops to play TIC-TAC-TOE against themselves.
Hey folks, many new organizations use that style of capitalization for acronyms – Nasa for NASA, etc.
Right or wrong, that is the way it is. My suspicion is that it is the result of some formatting or posting software, somewhere, that is scanning for capitalization errors.
So take that, Mdn.
THANKS, QKA!
@sheesh
Unix doesn’t really stand for anything, it’s a pun on the word “Multics”.
MacDailyNews result: MacDailyNews
@Guide to English vs American style
You are absolutely correct. BBC always follows this convention in all their articles.
The Beeb continues, “…Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place.”
Seems as though one of the flight crew has been visiting his naughty bits.
Should have used Safari… and AV software… and penicillin.
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I am waiting to hear what the FAA’s ‘software glitch” was
Space worms. Why did it have to be space worms?
“MacBook Air units which are safer”
Hey i love the macbook air, but i think i rather have a big clunky boxy plastic windows laptop fly at me in Zero G then the ultra thin knife like metal Macbook Air.