The Greater Manchester Police computer network was down for three days this week, due to infection by the Conficker worm.
The worm infected computers at the Greater Manchester Police, forcing officers there to rely on neighboring jurisdictions to access the national criminal records database, according to published reports.
Rather than run the risk of infecting the rest of the Police National Computer network, the Manchester network was disconnected from it. The worm was brought under control by Monday afternoon, and it was expected that the network would be brought back online sometime yesterday.
Investigators are leaning toward blaming the outbreak on an infected memory stick that someone plugged into a computer on the network.
The Conficker worm, which was discovered in November 2008, continues to morph and spread, with some estimates putting its sphere of influence at 7 million computers. Despite its size, the botnet it controls has rarely been used and usually not in very large numbers. Some investigators theorize that the author doesn't want to attract even more attention, so is keeping the botnet's activity to a minimum.
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2bathred said: It doesnt make any difference what OS you run if the people who use it dont take security seriously
Cyteck said: QTN Why will the government not take security seriously and move onto LinuxANS- The simple answer remains the availability of support for Linux products at that level Linux does require people with expert level of technical knowledge to support major Linux installations and such staff are not easy to find I suspect that governments would rather pay for licensed software and get the support which comes with it
Cyteck said: Looks like someone at Great Manchester police will now have to review amp tighten up their policy on the use of USB memory sticks pen drives flash drivesetc in and around the office OOPS thats a badden then
florus said: Why will the government not take security seriously and move onto Linux