Computer Viruses Strike Powys County Council

Officials of Powys County Council in the UK report that two strains of viruses have struck the council's PC network. The problems came into light during the 4th week of April 2009; nevertheless, there has been no loss of important data, according to the officials.

According to reports, the officials at the council still do not know from where the attack has originated. In fact, the attack has affected laptops and personal computers at the countrywide offices.

Elaborating on the effects of the viruses, Sarah Millington, the Councilor, stated that when the virus had infected her office laptop, her machine had started to run at a much slower pace than usual, as reported by shropshirestar on May 1, 2009. Millington further said that she didn't believe that her problem was as severe as that of some others. Some staff members' computers virtually stopped working for some part of the week, but they soon recovered and were functioning normally, she added.

Besides, the council further stated that the viruses had caused great inconvenience and disrupted the regular work of several office staff. The virus was believed to have affected programs like Microsoft Excel, Word and Adobe Flash.

Nevertheless, in spite of the attack, staff members have been operating their e-mail accounts as well as accessing the other IT systems at the offices without difficulty, a spokesman of the council said.

He also said that as many as 500 complaints related to the virus had been lodged with the IT security experts of the council, as reported by BBC on April 30, 2009.

However, the experts noted that the PCs were now successfully fixed and that they were brought back to their original operating conditions.

Meanwhile, virus outbreaks against the government computers as well as other websites in the UK have been rapidly increasing, according to security experts. The current attack is therefore not the only such incident in the UK.

In 2008, the Asprax PC virus infected many British consumer and government websites, exposing users to harmful hacking assaults. The websites affected included those that the British National Health Service and around 12 councils of the local government operated.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 5/15/2009