Computer viruses go galactic

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Viruses have now made it into orbit. The BBC news story says Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the International Space Station in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG.

The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games.

The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to earth. The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection.

Obviously everyone reading this has of course got anti-virus software - but just in case - you could download Windows Defender from the Small Business Download Centre, or take a look at Windows Live OneCare, helps prevent unwanted interruptions such as viruses, spyware, hackers, and other intruders. As well as security, OneCare regularly backs up all your important files and cleans and tunes up your computer to help it run efficiently.

Related posts: Windows Vista SP1 - making your IT work for you; Malware higher than ever.