A virus in space?
Updated on 27 August 2008
Nasa has confirmed that laptops aboard the International Space Station (ISS) became infected with the Gammima.AG computer virus.
The computer virus that infects machines in order to steal login details for online games and although it is a nuisance, it isn't considered to be a highly serious virus.
However, the fact that the laptops used by astronauts to send emails, watch videos and record details relating to experiments did get infected is a cause of concern.
The machines reportedly did not have anti-virus protection, although Nasa told Channel 4 News that they were not mission critical machines.
'it's not routine but it's a nuisance"'Nasa spokesman
However, when I asked their spokesman Kelly Humphries whether they were connected to the ISS's mission critical computer network, the telephone line appeared to go down.
After about twenty seconds of silence, I asked, "are you still there?", he replied:"yes" although when I repeated the question, the line went dead again.
After repeating this part of the conversation for five minutes, Nasa refused to deny that the computers were indeed connected to the network, but then they also refused to say they were.
Nasa said it's not the first time a computer has been infected with a virus. When I asked "is it then routine?" I was told "it's not routine but it's a nuisance"
