Virus Hits Computer Network of Swiss Foreign Ministry

According to security researchers, some unknown computer attackers have maliciously hacked into the network of the Swiss foreign ministry that has led to the shutdown of the network partially for many days. They apparently launched a professional virus assault that enabled them to hijack the network and gather unspecified data.

According to reports, the extent of this breach is still unknown. Moreover, officials didn't reveal as to exactly what data the hackers targeted. The attack was possibly designed in such a way that it successfully evades detection. Specialists belonging to the ministry as well as Microsoft, the computer giant, discovered the attack on October 22, 2009.

Georg Farago, spokesman at the ministry, says that the network was taken offline following the hack's discovery. ALLVOICES reported this on October 27, 2009.

Farago further added that specialists are on the job to figure out from where the attack originated as well as if any data has been stolen. Meanwhile, staff at the ministry has been asked not to use the Internet, although they could access the internally-linked computers.

During the fourth weekend of October 2009, the Swiss Interior Ministry and Finance Ministry also experienced some problems on their systems, and it isn't clear whether these incidences had any connection with the latest hack. Reports suggest that probably a spyware from a foreign country was spying the Swiss systems.

In the meantime, according to a warning from the security specialists, virus authors seem to be initiating surreptitious guerrilla techniques, unleashing gigantic virus outbreaks, hoping that they might succeed in compromising a significant network prior to any response from the anti-virus agencies.

Conversely, the Swiss external affairs ministry isn't the only entity being victimized by a virus attack. During the last few months, many organization and government websites in various nations have too suffered such assaults.

For instance, in February 2009, a computer virus, after already striking UK and French defence computers, was discovered proliferating onto German military networks. And to prevent further proliferation of the virus, several websites of German armed forces were disconnected from the country's military network.

Related article: Virus Infects Through USB Drives

» SPAMfighter News - 11/11/2009