UK Ministry Of Defence Gets A Virus

Feb 13, 2008
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UK Ministry Of Defence Gets A Virus


You may think you're having a bad day when your computer gets a virus, but it could be worse: a British aircraft carrier could be infected. Or a whole bunch of them.

The UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said today, "We can confirm there is a computer virus affecting a small number of MoD systems; however, there is no impact on operations. Immediate action has already been taken to clean up the infected systems and protect them from re-infection."

Luckily, the infection is only through administrative systems. Unluckily, it's very widespread, including the HMS Ark Royal [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invincible_class_aircraft_carrier].

The infection, through an unnamed virus, struck the MoD on the 6th of January and has so far only denied network access to some areas, but the entire MoD mail system has been shut down to alleviate repairs.

The MoD is confident that the virus was not an attempt to infiltrate the system, and that no personal data has been compromised. It is still checking whether any payment systems have been compromised.

The secretary of state for defense also admitted that only 27 percent of MoD IT systems fully meet government security guidelines.


Source: ZDNet [http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39593280,00.htm]

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Kross

World Breaker
Sep 27, 2004
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Hmm, hard to find a good shot, but this really called for a picture of the Da Vinci virus from Hackers.

 

ZakCanard

Anas Charisma
Oct 17, 2007
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Here's hoping none of the subs are affected, the last thing we need is "This program has made an illegal operation and will now launch all the Trident nuclear missiles. Have a nice day."
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
2,162
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Kinda hard to make any good jokes about this...

What antivirus were they running?

EDIT: Oh, I got one!

Knowing the government, it was probably AVG!
 

stompy

New member
Jan 21, 2008
2,951
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Asymptote Angel said:
"Leftenant, we can't go to fetish porn sites on the guidance control consoles anymore..."
That's what I'm thinking too...
 

Easykill

New member
Sep 13, 2007
1,737
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Kross said:
Hmm, hard to find a good shot, but this really called for a picture of the Da Vinci virus from Hackers.

[/QUOTE]

Heh. Nice one, didn't think of that.
 

spuddyt

New member
Nov 22, 2008
1,006
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Nimbus said:
Kinda hard to make any good jokes about this...

What antivirus were they running?

EDIT: Oh, I got one!

Knowing the government, it was probably AVG!
Whats wrong with AVG? :(
 

Somethingfake

New member
Oct 22, 2008
316
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"The secretary of state for defence also admitted that only 27 percent of MoD IT systems fully meet government security guidelines."

And of course, it'll take a system wide virus for them to shore up the rest of their sensitive computer systems.
 

Jamash

Top Todger
Jun 25, 2008
3,641
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Nimbus said:
Kinda hard to make any good jokes about this...

What antivirus were they running?

EDIT: Oh, I got one!

Knowing the government, it was probably AVG!
No, being the Navy it was probably Avast!
 

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
2,162
0
0
Jamash said:
Nimbus said:
Kinda hard to make any good jokes about this...

What antivirus were they running?

EDIT: Oh, I got one!

Knowing the government, it was probably AVG!
No, being the Navy it was probably Avast!
Um, the joke was that the government is cheap...
 

Ronwue

New member
Oct 22, 2008
607
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Awesome. Well... at least they cleaned it up. And at least you people have aircraft carriers.
 

DigitalSushi

a gallardo? fine, I'll take it.
Dec 24, 2008
5,718
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My neighbour is a networks analyst for the MoD, prick says he can't tell me anything about it, I said I promised not to tell the internet, but no he's not being a sport.