Security Bullet In
Communiques from the security front, sir
Thursday 28 August 2008, 5:31 PM
Nasa and the virus
Yesterday the BBC ran a story about a computer virus making it into orbit, which I read with incredulity. OK, it's a nice silly season story on the surface, but what really got me was that NASA doesn't have antivirus on its laptops:
"The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection," said the BBC. "Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected."
What a way to run a railroad.
Not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space? For goodness sake, surely Nasa of all organisations should know what "mission critical system" means? Surely those systems should be clean, to minimise the risk of anything going wrong?
Meanwhile, self-confessed Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon has lost his final legal battle not to be extradited to the US, where he faces up to sixty years in jail if found guilty. McKinnon has repeatedly said how easy it was to break into the Nasa systems, or, to quote his dad when I spoke to them both outside the House of Lords in June -- "The security was crap." Quite.
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OK do you mean the unix systems have been compromised?
I wouldn't be surprised if it was the windows laptops that they take up there with them, but as far as I understand windows isn't allowed near anything mission critical.
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009012o-2000440676b,00.htm#comment20096530
the above is a previous conversation we ve had on the subject.
Really gutted about Gary McKinnon. So even the EU has washed its hands (or should I say dirtied).
I just hope that our authorities refuse to send him, otherwise this equates to a modern day horror story.
If he does have to go I hope the judge goes easy, I hope he just ends up picking up rubbish for 6 months or something.
60 years? I do hope not, my thoughts go out to you Gary, and to your family and loved ones.
Good point Roger -- after digging around a bit more it seems that some Nasa mission critical systems aren't Windows based (I haven't checked for all of them -- will do a bit more digging). However, it's still a bit of a security nightmare not having av on Nasa laptops. Does that mean when they hook up to the internet they drop quite happily into a botnet? And what Nasa intellectual property could a hacker glean from them?
I agree with you completely about Gary McKinnon. Being a journalist I have to try to be objective when writing news articles, but here I can say what I think. It seems to me if he has a case to answer for, he should be tried in the UK. Plus, the whole non-reciprocal extradition relationship the UK has with the States is quite frankly a travesty of justice.
True enough....I expect there are many nations that would like to get a view on what NASA are up to. I expect it may be possible that what is on those laptops may be full of disinformation, designed to confuse, and what better way to spread it? Meanwhile the astronauts may be just using those laptops for entertainment purposes.
When I think about our "special" relationship with the US, I just don't get it. There seems to be some kind of hold over us as a nation. Like they got something on us.
