Conficker Attacks UK Parliament IT System

The computer network of Parliament Houses in the UK is infected by the well-known computer virus Conficker. The virus has infected over 15 Million PCs worldwide and placed itself on the computers used by the Lords, the MPs and other parliamentary staff.

The Conficker, which is also known as Downadup or Kido, penetrates deeply into the Windows OS from where hackers use it to steal the user's password and other sensitive information.

However, it is unknown when and in what manner the systems became contaminated, but it was claimed on March 26, 2009 that the UK parliament missed on meeting the regular Internet security procedures.

Officials at the parliament have said that a mail was sent electronically to the parliamentary staff alerting them about the spread of the virus. The e-mail further requested them that if they were using any computer that was not authorized to use on the system network, then they should withdraw such computers immediately.

This means that there are computers and laptops that established connections with the network of the Parliament even without being authorized to do so or in the absence of firewalls or virus checks, say the security specialists.

Moreover, the specialists are trying to know whether the Parliament's IT system had the up-to-date security software installed on it or not. Evidently, the virus infection on the network implies that antivirus software wasn't updated for the required protection. This also means that the Parliament remains susceptible to other online assaults as well, the specialists warned.

Meanwhile, the reports state that the Conficker worm first appeared in November 2008. Since then, Microsoft and other Internet security companies have issued several security updates and patches for defense against the worm's infection.

Recently, in early March 2009, the computer of Manchester Bishop had been also struck by malware. The infection in the e-mail system of the diocese implied that a good 6,000 e-mails sent by the bishop in the last few months might not have been delivered to the intended recipients.

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» SPAMfighter News - 4/2/2009