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NASA suffering a spaceborne virus
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by mchawk | August 27, 2008 at 03:57 am
675 views | 23 Recommendations | 14 comments
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...according to NASA, this wasn't the first infection.
"This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. "It's not a frequent occurrence, but this isn't the first time."
NASA downplayed the news, calling the virus mainly a "nuisance" that was on non-critical space station laptops used for things like e-mail and nutritional experiments. NASA and its partners in the space station are now trying to figure out how the virus made it onboard and how to prevent that in the future, according to Humphries.
NASA's daily reports from the ISS have revealed that the W32.Gammima.AG worm has made its way aboard the Station's laptop computers - a fairly harmless worm used to gather information of people playing online games.
As they're 180 miles away from the nearest network, it's doubtful that the crew have been spending their time on WoW, but this has raised some serious questions about the security of ISS systems, such as: Why don't they already have even basic anti-virus software already installed?
According to the transcript released by NASA at a space operations meeting last week (ISS 30P SORR), they very briefly outline the situation and offer some explanation as to how the infection may have happened:
Special Topic on Virus detected onboard
- W32.Gammima.AG worm. This is a level 0 gaming virus intended to gather personal information.
- Virus was never a threat to any of the computers used for cmd and cntl and no adverse effect on ISS Ops.
- Theory is virus either in initial software load or possibly transferred from personal compact flash card.
- Working with Russians (and other partners) regarding ground procedures to protect flown equipment in the future.
- It was noted that most of the IP laptops and some of the payload laptops do NOT provide virus protection/detection software
Looking at the ISS Daily reports, we can track what action cosmonaut Sergey Volkov is taking to remedy the problem:
ISS On-Orbit Status 08/22/08
All ISS systems continue to function nominally, except those noted previously or below.
CDR Volkov began his day by downlinking yesterday’s Norton AntiVirus (NAV) data from the RSK-1 laptop scan. Later in the day, FE-2 Chamitoff also ran the scan on the SSC (Station Support Computer) to be used for downloading today’s 1553-bus comm files of the JEMRMS (Japanese Experiment Module/Robotic Manipulator System) Checkout #4 from the RLT (RMS Laptop Terminal) to the OpsLAN for downlinking. [All A31p laptops onboard are currently being loaded with latest NAV software and updated definition files for increased protection.]
ISS On-Orbit Status 08/21/08
Sergey checked another Russian laptop, today RSK-1, for software virus by scanning its hard drives and a photo disk with the Norton AntiVirus application.
(There's a part of me that's disappointed that NASA aren't using open-source software.)
Let's hope that NASA has now learnt its lesson.
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mchawk
Maidenhead, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (14)
at 04:37 on August 27th, 2008
In space, no-one can hear you reboot... I see NASA is going for the whole security-through obscurity thing, which clearly isn't working too well so far.
at 05:33 on August 27th, 2008
I don't know about obscure, but judging by some of the photos on the ISS website, they're using really old IBMs - they seriously need an upgrade.
Thanks for the GS!
at 04:41 on August 27th, 2008
mchawk, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 05:33 on August 27th, 2008
Hi Rhonda. Thanks for the GS!
at 04:45 on August 27th, 2008
They shouldn't be visiting all those porn web sites while in space...... And maybe it is time for NASA to consider MAC's
at 05:35 on August 27th, 2008
Or Linux!
Thanks for the GS
at 05:46 on August 27th, 2008
=-)
We all know it gets lonely in space... so if they were online visiting porn in the ISS, Would we have to change the name to the International Spank Station ? (I'll stop now while I am behind)
at 06:25 on August 27th, 2008
A special distro depicting a space-helmeted penguin. Nice.
at 06:22 on August 27th, 2008
mchawk, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 08:00 on August 27th, 2008
mchawk, I like this story. It's good stuff.
One way they could fix this is just to control all computers from a single location - somewhere secure, like deep in the mountains of Colorado ...
Ahhh, they proabaly wouldn't be interested in doing that, would they ?
at 11:13 on August 27th, 2008
They'd only be interested in that if the computer could play Tic-Tac-Toe against Matthew Broderick
Cheers for the GS!
at 09:39 on August 27th, 2008
Mmmm. that being controlled from elsewhere would work just about as well as it would work for you if your work computer was controlled from elsewhere. How would you do email and post here?
There are different types of computers onboard spacecraft. These aren't mission computers. They're just...laptops. They don't cruise the internet. They mostly are there to be used for work and when possible, to email a bit via standard mission ops d/load channels.
Nothing critical was ever affected, or even close thereof. Note: to me, "spaceborne virus" indicates a biological illness vs. one little computer worm. But that's just an ops person speaking, ya know?
at 11:05 on August 27th, 2008
mchawk, I like this story. It's good stuff. Took a coupla times to get the flag going, but here it is!
at 11:18 on August 27th, 2008
Hi Pep - thanks for the GS and the comments.
As for the headline... I can't help running with a punchy headline, even if it streches the language to breaking-point!