Password Stealing Computer Virus Travels Into Space

It is believed that no computer on this planet can escape computer virus. Now, it seems the machines are not safe even in the space. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed on Wednesday that a computer virus has managed to slide onboard the International Space Station, causing a nuisance for both the astronauts and mission control.

NASA announced that a virus known as W32.Gammina.AG was identified on laptops aboard the International Space Station, which carries more than 70 computers. The space agency said the virus has affected the laptops that were carried to the ISS in July, and also acknowledged that such infections have happened before.

“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.”

He went on saying that the low-risk W32.Gammina.AG worm, which is designed to gather information from online gaming accounts, was detected on July 25, but was stopped with virus protection software and posed no threat to the orbiting laboratory or operations.

"It was never a threat to any command-and-control or operations computer," he said. "We'll do our best to track down how it got there and close that gateway."

Discovered on August 27, 2007, the W32.Gammina.AG worm, also known as Worm.Win32.AutoRun.bhx [Kaspersky], is designed to steal logon information from online gamers.

According to the California-based retail anti-virus software manufacturer Symantec, the one-year-old Windows-based worm propagates by copying itself onto removable media, and is capable of stealing passwords for online games. So far it has affected the following online games: ZhengTu, Wanmi Shijie or Perfect World, Dekaron Siwan Mojie, HuangYi Online, Rexue Jianghu, ROHAN, Seal Online, Maple Story, R2 (Reign of Revolution) and Talesweaver.

The U.S. space agency is currently working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus found its way into the laptops. However, the SpaceRef report suggested that a flash card or USB drive brought on board by an astronaut may have been the source of the laptop infection.

NASA believes that there was no way that data on the laptops could be sent to hackers on Earth as the space-bound computers use a satellite data link to transmit information and e-mails.

The Expedition 17 crew members aboard the station are Russian cosmonaut
commander Sergei Volkov, cosmonaut flight engineer Oleg Kononenko and NASA flight engineer Greg Chamitoff.