And now for something that really is out of this world…

A computer worm that eats up passwords was found on laptops aboard the International Space Station, NASA has confirmed. However, its not the first time a NASA computer has been infected.

W32.TGammima.AG is the rather catchy name of the worm, which spreads itself by copying itself to removable media devices. Once the worm is in place, it sets about stealing passwords to various online games, according to anti-virus software provider Symantec, who first spotted the worm 12 months ago.

“This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus,” a NASA spokesman said. “It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time.”

The infected machines were not considered “mission critical”, meaning they didn’t control the space ship in any way. However, the NASA spokesman was unable to confirm whether the infected laptops had ever been connected to any mission-critical systems.

Just how exactly computers aboard a space station get infected by an everyday worm is a mystery. Perhaps one of the astronauts was keeping his World of Warcraft score nice and high by P0wning n00bs from outer space.