[Typewriters were dusted off, hand-held radios were tested, and Anne Arundel County employees reported having to walk between offices rather than sending e-mails yesterday after a virus led to the shutdown of more than 2,500 computers.
The county's office of information technology began fielding calls from employees about 10:40 a.m. Wednesday. The virus, called Rinbot, spread quickly. County officials decided to shut down the entire network rather than allowing the virus to spread.
County contractor Symantec, a virus protection company, was called to examine the problem and provide a cure.
According to Symantec's Web site, the Rinbot virus exploits vulnerabilities in the network, including components protected by weak passwords. Once it infects a computer, it opens a back door in the computer, which can cause further problems, and scans the network for other computers it can infect.]
- Washington Post
1 comment:
We need much higher crime enforcement and penaties for virus creators. Time to start recognizing this as the very serious crime it is. More than robbing a bank -- that's what I think.
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