US Marshall Service Struck By Computer Virus Attack

A computer virus attack has struck the computer system at the U.S. Marshal Service, affecting Marshals in Birmingham.

The virus has caused the Marshal Service to shut down parts of their system to keep it from spreading to other agencies.

That means Marshals in Birmingham can’t access the NCIC computer and they don’t have access to email.

A Marshals spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. says at no time was any data compromised.

The type of virus and its origin have not yet been determined.

Source

Computer Virus Time Bomb Could Go Off April 1 – Conficker Virus

UPDATE: Department of Homeland Security has released Worm Detection Tool

The Conficker Internet worm could strike at infected computers around the world on April 1, a security expert warned Monday.

Conficker is a sophisticated piece of malicious computer software, or malware, that installs itself on a Windows PC’s hard drive via specially written Web pages. It then conceals itself on a computer.

Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos confirmed that Conficker is programmed “to hunt for new instructions on April 1.”

However, he added, “This does not mean that anything is going to happen, or that the worm is actually going to do anything. Simply, it is scheduled to hunt a wider range of Web sites for instructions on that date.”

One strange thing about Conficker is that no one yet has any idea what it is programmed to do.

In February, Cluley told The Times: “It’s as if someone is assembling an army of computers around the world, but hasn’t yet decided where to point them.”

A worst-case scenario for April 1 would be for all the world’s millions of infected computers to receive simultaneous instructions to attack, or to flood the Internet with spam e-mail.

via FOXNews.com – Computer Virus ‘Time Bomb’ Could Go Off April 1 – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News.