Houston Courts Shut Down By Malware

Conficker is still at it: dstates writes "The municipal courts of Houston were shut down yesterday after a computer virus spread through the courts' computer systems. The shutdown canceled hearings and suspended arrests for minor offenses and is expected to extend through Monday. The disruption affected many city departments, the Houston Emergency Center was briefly disconnected and police temporarily stopped making some arrests for minor offenses. The infection appears to be contained to 475 of the city's more than 16,000 computers, but officials are still investigating. Gray Hat Research, a technology security company, has been brought in on an emergency contract to eradicate the infection. In 2006, the City spent $10M to install a new computer system and bring the Courts online, but the system has been beset by multiple problems. After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus, and may seek another vendor."

Comments

Re:Easy fix to this. Use OS X.

[painehope]

I stand by what I said. Or else I would have posted anonymously.

As for elitist, whatever you say, slick. I've wrestled with those arguments more than anyone I know. It's an ethical dilemma, no doubt.

But you know what I have to say, at the end of the night (well, not quite - I still have a few beers left)? Fuck it. Bill Hicks was right when he said Hitler was just an underachiever. Tool was right to dedicate an album, in memorial, to him. One that contained the song "Aenema" on it.

That's right...learn to swim, motherfuckers. Because if you keep it up, you'll be neck deep in sewage and corpses. You can only build so many dams in the path of evolution before it backs up and chokes your ass.