The ISS doesn't have a full-time net connection, but astronauts can send email periodically through the Ku-band main data link. NASA reassures us that any virus found on an astronaut's laptop has little chance of compromising any of the station's main systems. But it did manage to spread to more than one laptop once onboard the station, either via machine-to-machine networks or thumb drives—so it's not a crazy assumption to make.

NASA further downplayed the story to the folks at Threat Level, saying this kind of thing happens "all the time." But still, whoever the fuck-up is that wrote this virus is now collecting massive, massive LOLZ in whichever basement he is currently calling home. [BBC, Threat Level via Slashdot]

Well, interestingly enough, the combination of people getting newly purchased, XP Service Pack 2 PCs (or Macs), combined with machines not being turned on for the holidays and people being away from work, made the number of infected PCs decrease dramatically. We wouldn't expect the numbers to stay lower for long, however. Once grandma starts browsing those hardcore porn sites again, she can add her new machine to the bot-net once more. – Jason Chen

Bot-infected PCs get a refresh [Security Focus]