“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.]
Woooooooorms in Spaaaaaaaaaaaace!
THAT’S WHY!!! a couple months ago the toilets didn’t function properly and the astronauts had to go shit outside!!!!!………..
Down loading porn in space is not good.
It’s time for Steve Jobs (and yes he’s alive and well) to send each Astronaut and each Astronaut in trainning a fully pimp out Mac Pbbok Pro… as a public service to the nation, if not for the ad/press value <GRIN>
completely stupid to take Windows to space !
they should use linux, or mac os without any 3’rd party software.
“astronauts should be equipped with MacBook Air units which are safer, thinner, lighter, and better.”
hehe, do u realize how stupid that is ?
i hope it’s meant as a joke, as there is no GRAVITY in space !
furthermore, the MBA is really very unreliable when hot, and it’s always hot.
(the recent MBA update improved the situation a lot, but it still slows down under pressure)
@ Los Angeleeeeeeze
u are a moron, there is no “right” way to pronounce tigris, or even “Los Angeles”, as they are not english words.
Multinational, however, is english, and some americans, including the Bush’s are pronouncing the i like pie, that sounds horrible.
don’t try to teach other countries how to pronounce words, u live in the worst country in the world to do so.
“Im in ur spacestashun, sharding ur grapes…”
If they want to play WoW in space, they should use Macbook Pros…
My mamma says I got worms.
Feel free to criticise when you have a head of state who can pronounce the word ‘nuclear’.
i’ve got the same problem, and i found the solution here on repair blue screen error, just for reference.