British university slammed by unknown virus
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Network security at the UK's University of Exeter was breached by an unidentified virus on Monday, taking down the entirety of the institution's computer capacity and, local paper the Express and Echo reports, even spreading to the school's telephone network.
The university said that the virus - about which almost no details are available - seemed to only target PCs running Windows Vista SP2. Nevertheless, the network was shut down to prevent further contamination of vulnerable computers.
ZDNet reports that the internal network remains down as of yesterday evening, although school email accounts are available via Outlook Web Access or virtual private networks. Multiple satellite campuses of the university were cut off from the central hub and from each other. Additionally, writes ZDNet, the university's virtual learning environment was shut down, curtailing student and faculty access to online educational resources.
The IT news site also says that internal emails seem to indicate that there was a problem updating the university's IT security measures, which may have left a known vulnerability unprotected. Experts say that keeping all systems patched and updated is critical to maintaining the security of a large network.
Related News:
Cyber criminals exposed medical records - 3.8.2010
More than 18,000 patients, whose medical information is stored on the computer systems of five doctors in Torrance, California, were potential victims of identity theft in September when cyber criminals penetrated the doctors' networks, according to the Los Angeles Times.
McAfee advises companies to boost web security relating to source code - 3.4.2010
At the RSA Conference, currently taking place in San Francisco, McAfee released a report indicating that companies regularly use too few web security protocols when protecting intellectual property such as source code.
False social networking attacks provides teachable moment for web security - 2.25.2010
A unique tool developed to prevent the spread of malware from social networking websites has been recommended Processor.com, a web and network security news provider.
With global web security under siege, exports point to problems - 2.25.2010
In 2009, Garlik, a United Kingdom-based web security company, reported a 207 percent increase in malware use to overtake bank accounts. Recent events have also shown vulnerability in corporate, private and governmental web security systems.
Kaspersky reports malware growing more sophisticated - 2.24.2010
Kaspersky, a web security provider, reported Wednesday that while there is very little growth in the amount of malware currently roaming the web, it is becoming more advanced and much harder to detect.
|
