The International Space Station (ISS) said to have infected with malware, causing virus outbreak in space, mainly due to the use of infected USB sticks on computers used by scientists, a security expert said.
Kaspersky labs chief Eugene Kaspersky said that before the ISS swapped from Windows XP to Linux computers, Russian cosmonauts inadvertently infected the space station’s computer systems with an unnamed virus earlier this year through a personal infected removable storage device.
The security expert however said the damage it caused by the malware to the computer systems of the ISS is unknown, while the virus epidemics compromised the space-based networked computers, which include dozens of laptops.
However, to counter the ongoing threat, the space station switched all its computers to the Linux operating system early this year to boost security over the earlier Windows XP version.
The Russian security also warned that some malware had been highly sophisticated instances of international and industrial damages.
According to other media reports, earlier in 2008, a Russian astronaut said to have taken a Windows XP laptop into the ISS which was infected with the W32.Gammima.AG worm.
