Houston Courts Shut Down By Malware 126
Conficker is still at it: dstates writes "The municipal courts of Houston were shut down yesterday after a computer virus spread through the courts' computer systems. The shutdown canceled hearings and suspended arrests for minor offenses and is expected to extend through Monday. The disruption affected many city departments, the Houston Emergency Center was briefly disconnected and police temporarily stopped making some arrests for minor offenses. The infection appears to be contained to 475 of the city's more than 16,000 computers, but officials are still investigating. Gray Hat Research, a technology security company, has been brought in on an emergency contract to eradicate the infection. In 2006, the City spent $10M to install a new computer system and bring the Courts online, but the system has been beset by multiple problems. After threatening litigation, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the original vendor, Maximus, and may seek another vendor."
Do courts need computers? (Score:5, Interesting)
From the article:
It sounds like this whole computerization effort was poorly executed from the get-go. Many such projects have problems, since they typically pit bumbling bureaucrats against shark-like consultants.
Anyway maybe they ought to take the database and just pull out the pending cases using ad hoc queries, and send the print-outs to the courthouse so they can get on with their work. This can't be rocket science here.
Re:MS Monoculture (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:2, Interesting)
City Employees Surfing at Work (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, so if these computers were used solely for official business, there wouldn't be this big of an issue. Lower paid workers tend not to have computers or internet at home, so they use work systems for "surfing." No internet access and email should only be via highly filtered webmail. USB, DVD drives and floppies locked off with zero access.
I used to work in Telecom. Our biggest malware/virus issues were at E911 centers even when the computers were on a dedicated network without any non-911 access. The nationwide 911 system doesn't use IP, so the problems didn't come from outside each 911 center. Those folks were paid $8/hr by cities and were under constant virus and malware attack from workers bringing programs in on diskettes, CDs and USB drives.
The other problem is the lack of understanding that many municipalities have over computer system maintenance. Many localities are smart and cautious, while many others treat work systems like home systems and hope for the best. Some have decided to provide free municiple wifi internet access with the same network their police and emergency services use for remote access. fools.
Re:What a great way to bust out of prison (Score:4, Interesting)
Hate to break this to you, but TDCJ is state jail and prison (two separate entities, only handles felons). Entirely separate from Houston City courts (which only handle class C misdemeanor sentences and traffic ticket fines - no one stays in City Jail longer than a week) or Harris County Jail (up to 18 months, IIRC, and still a separate entity). And the only thing your idea would do is cause a riot.
Not that it wouldn't break the monotony. But the chain link fences topped with barbed wire, armed guards, and mechanical systems wouldn't be effected in the least. TDCJ is a lot less technical than city/county jails. It's a prison, after all, not a local jail.
Re:Oops (Score:3, Interesting)
Kalriath,
Um, I hate to tell you this but you are WRONG.
I just got done installing MS SBS 2k3 sp3 and I gotta tell ya I was FLOORED when I inserted a driver CD and the autorun on it came up.
Autorun, on by default, ON A FREAKING SERVER!!!
It also took 4.5 hours to install itself (I only had to change CD 3 times)on a 1tb partition on a quad core machine with 8gb.
Fuck this, I'm going back to Novell!
Re:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:3, Interesting)
Sometimes the problem is between keyboard and chair, but sometimes that chair was the developer's. If the system had been designed properly in the first place...
I've seen enough machines where bloody Windows Updates has silently failed (or pegged the CPU) that I'd love to hit the idiots responsible for releasing it into the wild with a clue by four.
I mean, seriously. If you were responsible for Windows Update, knowing it would be integral to the safe and proper operation of millions of computers worldwide, how would you bloody well not feel criminally negligent for the piece of crap that actually came out of your department?
Re:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Which OS was infested? I bet I can guess. (Score:3, Interesting)
Which specific business functionality do you have in mind? I admit there are some. (Tax software comes to mind.) But if you aren't specific I can't be certain that you are being stupid, and must merely presume that.
There are reasons to choose MSWind. Some are even valid. I have a MSWind95 machine that I keep isolated from the net. But there aren't very many. And the ones that I most commonly hear about are just people being stupid and prejudiced.