It has finally happened. Nowhere is safe. Not only have we filled the our solar system with parts of disused space ships, littered the moon with flags and buggies and congested the expanse of space with radio waves, now we have sent a computer viruse into space.
The W32.Gamimma.AG worm has escaped the confines of planet earth. Inside a laptop it was carried by astraunauts into the international space station in July. How it got onto the laptops remains uncertain but it is likely to have been transmitted through a USB stick. Interestingly the laptops did not have antivirus software on them. Was that because NASA did not think that the antivirus software worked or because they did not think computer viruses were a threat?
The virus itself steals passwords for internet games which are popular in the Far East. It is a windows based virus (as so many are) which spreads by copying inteslf onto removable media. NASA have stated that no comand or control systems were at risk from the virus and indeed all data from the space station is scanned before transmission.
Despite Gamimma's categorisation as a "low level threat" this incident does lead to concern that computer viruses are becoming ever more prevalent, more intrusive and potentially more destructive.
