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:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess.

[phulegart]

Did you know...
The Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool now removes Antivirus 2009 and it's variants? That means as long as people update Windows, they is a measure of protection offered. However, if people do not understand that they must make sure that Windows is up to date by actually running the update utility, how are they going to keep their system protected?

I currently make a living removing spyware and malware from infected machines. Did you know that the majority of people think that malware and spyware are the same as a virus? Did you know that the majority of people out there think that a Virus removal tool also removes spyware and malware? Every day, machines are brought in running XP that is still using service pack 1 or 2. People bring in machines that are running a copy of Norton that expired 2 years ago... and they think that they should still be protected, because they have Norton.

The only ignorance here that matters, is YOURS. As has been pointed out in many different ways... the problem is between the keyboard and the chair... not with the Operating system.