Virus Attacks BC E-mail Servers, but Normalcy Gained Soon After

The e-mail service of Canada's British Columbia was recently hit with a PC-virus, but now the services have been restored, published kelownanow.com dated December 18, 2014.

According to Canada's Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services, the provincial government encountered termination of its e-mail service following one PC-virus attack in the morning of 18th December 2014, a Thursday.

In a statement that Bettie Jo-Hughes, Chief Information Officer just issued, it's learnt that one PC-virus obtained from certain malevolent file attachment coming in the morning of December 18, 2014 contaminated the electronic mail servers of the government. But immediately on getting to know about the problem, the ministry adopted measures for lessening the government systems' exposure to the virus while safeguarding from loss of data. Globalnews.ca reported the statement on December 18, 2014.

Mr. Jo-Hughes also stated that government took the issue seriously. To stay safe, it had tentatively turned off its e-mail servers; meanwhile efforts were on with its vendors towards solving the problem.

He added that safeguarding the government's networks and data was most important while work was on with vendors for eliminating as well as making the e-mail service secure at the earliest.

British Columbia Transportation through a tweet timed 10:30 a.m. was first that notified about the problem with BC's electronic mail accounts to residents.

Officials, who still require answering queries about the infection, said that information technology (IT) staff members were most suitable for speaking to the media.

Disturbingly, British Columbia isn't the sole province to have its government e-mail shutdown owing to a harmful PC-virus of cyber-criminals for, Bermuda Police Service also cautioned local inhabitants of one PC-virus which had destabilized its servers on 18th December 2014.

An agency of law enforcement, Bermuda Police Service belongs to British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. A spam mail captioned "Your documen" was used to disseminate the virus.

A Bermuda Police Service (BPS) Spokeswoman stated that there were reports of the e-mail from other locations too beyond BPS' jurisdiction. Royalgazette.com published this, December 18, 2014.

The Spokeswoman stated that anybody receiving the e-mail mustn't click on the attachment while erase the message immediately.

» SPAMfighter News - 12/26/2014