Computer Viruses Knock Out Systems at Rensselaer County

Computers are being scanned at the office of Rensselaer County (New York, USA) to remove two viruses, which invaded the systems and collapsed 200 of the total 700 PCs along with 20 servers.

Vince Ruggiero, Information Services Director, stated that it had been rather strenuous as they had been spending long hours to clean the infection, as reported by News Channel 13 on June 5, 2009.

Ruggiero further stated that although they knew when the viruses came in, they were not aware of their source. Meanwhile, computer engineers are trying to locate the infected systems, cleaning them along with the servers.

Reportedly, a power supply disruption during the end week of May 2009 resulted in the infection of a server, allowing the virus to enter the network that disrupted back-office operations such as Budget and Finance, and Central Services. However, no urgent services like Motor Vehicles, Social Services, 911 operations and the Jail were compromised because of the worms.

County spokesman Chris Meyer stated the disruption in the computers started on June 2, 2009, as reported by timesunion on June 5, 2009. The county was expecting that all the PCs would be running by June 5, 2009.

Meyer further stated that they would be restoring the offices methodically to ensure that there wouldn't be any repetition of the infection.

Meanwhile, the problem with the power supply might not be the only reason for the infection, said a team of security researchers belonging to an Internet strategy firm that had been tied to the Rensselaer County under a contract. Moreover, although the specialists made no condemnation, they questioned the extent of protection on the County's network.

The security researchers said that although they couldn't figure out everything that actually happened, one thing that was evident was the existence of a connection between the deactivation of one provider in preference for another and a few security flaws that had been exposed from their previous status of protection.

Nevertheless, the County office stated that had there been any indication of security flaws or any failure, it wouldn't have switched to a different provider.

Related article: Computer Virus Writers Adopt New Strategy

» SPAMfighter News - 6/11/2009