Authorities investigating the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022 have discovered a central computer system used to monitor technical problems in the aircraft was infected with malware due to which the infected computer failed to detect three technical problems with the aircraft, which if detected, may have prevented the plane from taking off.

Flight 5022 crashed just after takeoff from Madrid-Barajas International Airport two years ago today, killing 154 and leaving only 18 survivors.

The malware on the Spanair computer has been identified as a type of Trojan horse. It could have entered the airline's system in a number of ways, most likely through third party devices such as USB sticks which were responsible for the International Space Station virus infection in 2008, or through a remote VPN connection that may not have the same protection as a computer within the enterprise network. Opening just one malicious file on a single computer is all it takes to infect an entire system.

Ref: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38790670/ns/technology_and_science-security