Vermont AHS Computers Struck by an Unknown Virus

Vermont Agency of Human Services (AHS) had to shutdown the computers systems on April 10, 2009, following the outburst of a virus. The computers experts of the State are currently working on the problem in order to resume the online services of the department.

According to the statement of Rob Hofmann, Secretary at the Vermont Agency of Human Services, this virus seems to be a new one that has not been detected in past, as reported by wcax on April 13, 2009.

On the other hand, security officials believe that certain characteristics of the infection which has affected the AHS systems indicate as if it is the work of Conficker. Large number of PCs at the AHS, about 2500, has been infected by the computer worm.

According to reports, infected computers began downloading fake anti-virus software called "scareware" which dupe users into making payments for useless or bogus computer security software. This is just identical to the modus operandi of the nasty Conficker worm.

Explaining the probable impact of the virus, Head of the State's Department of Information and Innovation, Tom Murray, stated that they were still not sure of the long-term impacts of that virus infection, as reported by TimesArgus.com on April 11, 2009. He further added that their team of experts was suspicious that it was the work of Conficker worm.

Additionally, most of the computers at AHS were out of operation on April 11, 2009, so that the infected system could be isolated and further expansion of the malicious program could be avoided, stated Murray.

Security experts told that besides AHS, there are other organizations also which faced the problems caused by the computer viruses on the same day when AHS was infected by the virus. For example, over 700 systems at University of Utah were detected of Conficker infection. However, there is only a difference between the two attacks that in case of Utah Conficker infection has been confirmed whereas in case of AHS, the virus seems similar to Conficker but have distinct features. This, so far, unknown virus has created a lot of panic among people by affecting their work.

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