International Space Station Exposed to Computer Virus
You think you have problems? The astronauts on the International Space Station discovered the W32.Gammima.AG worm on one of their notebooks.
W32.Gammima.AG isn't a particularly dangerous virus; according to Symantec, the risk level is low. (Tech details.)
The worm may have found its way on board by way of a Compact Flash card or, according to NASA, it might have been in "the initial software." I guess they're implying the worm was on the notebooks to begin with. I like the Compact Flash card theory best.
Are You Protected?
You'd think the notebooks would have some sort of antivirus program installed (hey, like, AVG is a freebie, guys). But apparently only a few of the notebooks were protected.
After the worm was discovered, Russian astronaut Sergey Volkov "ran digital photo flash cards from stowage through a virus check with the Norton AntiVirus application" (from NASA's logs).
A week later, and in no apparent rush, Volkov downloaded Symantec's NAV updated definition files and loaded the software and updates on all the notebooks. (Logs.) Note to Symantec: Not to worry. I'm fairly certain NASA has an extraterrestrial site license.
Read more on SpaceRef.
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"(hey, like, AVG is a freebie, guys)"
I hate to be the spoiler, but if you look at the AVG website, you'll find that "AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is only available for single computer use for home and non commercial use." I'm no legal expert, but I'm guessing that NASA doesn't qualify under that license. Even if you are counting the space station as the astronaut's "home."
I use Firefox and IE7, but Chrome doesn't knock me out. Sorry, it's kinda boring, at this stage anyway...
whoops, sorry, wrong article ;.)