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Virus Shuts Down Australian Ambulance Dispatch Service

Posted by timothy on from the severe-spankings-called-for-in-certain-basements dept.

angry tapir writes "Computers which co-ordinate ambulances in NSW, Australia, are back online in three of the state's regions after a major virus forced staff to shut them down for more than 24 hours. The virus crept into the Ambulance Service of NSW's dispatch system, prompting staff to co-ordinate paramedics by telephone and handwritten notes. The cause and source of the virus are not yet known."

15 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. I know what caused it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "The cause and source of the virus are not yet known."

    I'm gonna take a guess at the cause: somebody decided to use a Microsoft product to control a critical system on which people's lives depend.

    If a bank used an armored car made of cardboard to transport money, would you blame the inevitable robbers, or the bank?

    1. Re:I know what caused it by gandhi_2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm gonna take a guess at the cause:

      letting mission-critical systems be used by employees to surf facebook and download cute fonts and wallpaper.

      --
      THL phish sticks
    2. Re:I know what caused it by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Odds are nobody "went after" them in any direct way. The viruses and worms you are most likely to run into in the wild are the ones that propagate either automatically, or through undiscriminating means like bugged ads injected into unscrupulous or incompetent 3rd-party ad networks.

      It is certainly conceivable that somebody mounted a direct attack, the opportunity to cause some deaths with limited chance of repercussions is probably attractive to a few people; but the odds are much greater that some automated attack mechanism hit them without knowing anything more than that the OS and services running on those hosts were vulnerable...

    3. Re:I know what caused it by micheas · · Score: 3, Funny

      When I briefly used windows 2003 I was surprised at how easy it was to lock down IE.

      I was further surprised by the number of things that did not work when IE was locked down and security exceptions had to be added. (Quickbooks being the one that I remember, because it took a fair amount of searching to find out what the exact rule that was needed in order for it to work, most people seemed to just unlock IE, if the forum posts I was reading are any indication.

      There seems to be a common attitude about system administration that if you run everything as Administrator, chmod -R 777 ./, disable SELinux, unlock IE, or run all your server process as the same user (here's looking at you Zimbra) you have fixed the problem, instead of realizing that you have done the equivalent of jumping out the 20th floor window because the ink jet printer is on fire. You're safe for the moment, but the inevitable consequence of your action is going to suck a lot more.

      --
      Work bio at MMWD
    4. Re:I know what caused it by Bobakitoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unfortunately we cannot get rid of the users. Using better softwares is the next best option.

    5. Re:I know what caused it by headhot · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yea, and at-least 2 of them were shutdown by windows crashes and were dead in the water, need a tow all the way back to port. The smart ship program started with an unix bases system until MS hired a retired admiral to loby for it.

    6. Re:I know what caused it by antifoidulus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Here's the thing about locking down Windows, it has the most pointlessly complex, convoluted security policies you could ever imagine. Something as simple as the firewall can be changed in 3 THREE different places on XP(no idea about future versions), and the way they interact and overrule each other is completely non-obvious. Now compare this with iptables, one text file, just one, and it's a text file. Boom, you have a functioning firewall and if someone needs a port opened/closed, it's just a vi command and /etc/init.d iptables reload away. I swear Microsoft makes their products pointlessly complex in order to maximize the number of people who take the MSCE test.

      --
      Monstar L
    7. Re:I know what caused it by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      More importantly with Linux you can create far more secure appliances. Where unnecessary services are completely removed and only what is required to run the appliance based server and workstations is installed and available on the installation software.

      The dispatch machines need only handle bookings, dispatch, arrival, return etc. (database) and then pass that data to accounting, nothing else. With Linux it is fairly easy for a skilled person to create a custom appliance distribution, all without infringing copyright.

      That is the biggest problem with windows the impossibility of creating completely custom installs with everything you didn't need, not just maybe, most likely, disabled but actually completely absent, on the machine and on installation software, all because go to jail copyright infringement.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  2. Windows by sirsnork · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'll probably get modded to hell for this, but this isn't Microsoft's fault. Their IT staff is either incompetent, or their management is. Stopping Wdinwso from getting a virus isn't a diffucult proposition.

    Install decent AV in it, keep the subscription up to date, done.

    You can of course go much further and lock down the OS so it doesn't let removable devices connect etc, but unless this was more than a virus, simple AV would have solved it.

    --

    Normal people worry me!
  3. Re:Fools. by c0lo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, this is NSW. With Keneally at the helm you know that you are going down one way or another.

    Funny thing, I'm not seeing the Liberal Party in NSW pushing the "Replace MS Windows with Linux" as a point on their electoral agenda. Can you please provide a link?

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  4. Re:If.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Windows is such crapware, as so many of you think, why don't you guys all get together and write an emergency management system that runs on a Linux distro? Now I obviously don't know for sure, but it seems likely the reason they are using Windows is that their application is written that way. Take a way the need to use Windows before bitching and moaning about them using Windows.

    Presentation at this week's North Carolina GIS Conference

    Open Source Computer-Aided-Dispatch – GIS at
    Work in Emergency Response,” Arnie Shore,
    Anne Arundel Co, MD

    Looks like Arnie will be talking about this:

    http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp.opensource/browse_thread/thread/29ba12a929bd7bd3?pli=1

  5. Re:If only it was that easy.... by DeathElk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What a sad, sad situation.

  6. Where does it say Windows? by Vorghagen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Almost every comment posted so far is bashing Microsoft or Windows for being an insecure OS but I can't find any mention of either in the article. It doesn't give any information about what kind of system the Ambulance Service was running.

    1. Re:Where does it say Windows? by grcumb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Almost every comment posted so far is bashing Microsoft or Windows for being an insecure OS but I can't find any mention of either in the article. It doesn't give any information about what kind of system the Ambulance Service was running.

      It said, 'Virus'. That means Windows.

      I hate to be the pee on your your empiricism, but the preponderance of evidence accumulated over the last 15 years leads to the conclusion that Windows is a necessary precondition for a virus to take down an entire system (as opposed to a single PC).

      Secondly, if this had been a Mac or Linux virus, you can bet your bottom dollar the headline would say so. In 4 inch letters. And red type. With Drudge-style cherries spinning. And a klaxon.

      Plus, the very next story would be about the spontaneous, simultaneous death by shock-and-horror of the entire editorial staff at the Register. And Wired. And boingboing.

      And then Slashdot would slashdot itself. And dogs would play with cats...

      ... And everyone would finally get their pony.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  7. Boredom... by sigipickl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Having worked for many health care facilities over the years, including those with EMT/Ambulance staff, I can tell you that ambulance drivers and dispatchers suffer from periods of insane boredom while waiting for the next call to come in. During this downtime, they monkey with the PCs, browse some of the most pointless/inappropriate websites, and try plugging anything with an ethernet jack in to your network. The latter includes personal laptops, wireless access points and satellite/cable boxes. Solutions to this include 802.1x/NAP and even just getting the crews a DSL/Cable internet connection for their personal use. Like many things in I.T. (and life in general), the more you restrict someone's access to something they want, the more they will work against your efforts to restrict them.

    In this case, I'll put my money on an outside computer being plugged in to the network.

    I've never had to deal with I.T. in a fire station, but I can guess it's every bit as bad, if not worse.

    --
    Never trust anyone who takes pride in being called a 'geek'....