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.