Conficker Back in Action in Missouri City

Computers in the Missouri City (USA) have been attacked by a computer virus that infected some of the computer systems at the police department and city hall.

According to Police Captain John Bailey, it was the work of some kind of virus, reported Huston Press on August 12, 2009. He also told that the systems are currently down as everything now-a-days is simply being stored electronically.

Bailey also informed that nothing could be estimated about how long it would take for the things to be fixed. However, he expected the computers to be back in operation in just a short period of time.

As a precautionary measure, non-emergency computers were shut down for examining them. In the meantime, the virus has been identified as W32 downadup, called Conficker.

Missouri City's communications director, Barbara Brescian, stated that the IT employees of the city intentionally took down the city network on realizing the Conficker's presence, as per the news published by FortBendNow on August 13, 2009.

She further added that they don't have any idea if the virus would have infected all the systems, but all of the systems were shut down at a time when 5-10 computers were reported to have got infected. According to Brescian, no data has been compromised in the course, but even then a comprehensive security assessment of the systems was reportedly carried out to discover if such a thing happened.

Brescian also noted that IT personnel are still without any clue on how the virus infiltrated the city's computer network. The city officials decided to publically reveal the fact that the mess in the city's computer network was created by Conficker, so as to make other network administrators aware that they should ponder over the measures to bolster their security arrangements, she highlighted.

It is learnt that since October 2008, Conficker has infected millions of computer systems running Windows around the world. The level of nuisance caused by the virus could easily be judged by the announcement made by the Microsoft in February to offer a reward of worth $250,000 for bringing the Conficker's creator to the court.

According to security experts, up-to-date Microsoft security patches offer the most effective protection against the Conficker.

Related article: Conviction of First Felony Spam in Virginia Upheld

» SPAMfighter News - 8/28/2009