Dave Bailey, Computing, Tuesday 2 February 2010 at 17:48:00
Greater Manchester Police disconnected from the Police National Computer
since Friday
The Conficker virus has infected Greater Manchester Police (GMP) IT systems, PNC IT experts disconnected GMP?s system from the central database last Speaking to the BBC, assistant chief constable Dave Thompson said no data had "A team of experts is now working on removing the virus, and we won't be "We have systems in place to ensure this does not affect our service to the The Conficker virus can be spread by USB sticks, especially if the system Security vendors' products which have centralised monitoring of desktop Conficker began in 2008, but was patched by Microsoft in October 2008 It was the second variant of Conficker ('B') detected in December 2008 which Sophos?s Graham Cluley said on his popular blog, ?my guess is that it's most Cluley pointed out that although companies cannot strip search employees to The PNC allows police forces to search a criminal names database using QUEST The system also gives web-based access to CRIMELINK ? an enhanced version of This is not the first time Manchester has had a run-in with Conficker. In
necessitating their isolation from the Police National Computer (PNC) system.
Friday. GMP has since been asking neighbouring forces to carry out name and
vehicle checks on its behalf.
been lost, and that the virus was not destructive, but gave no details of
whether it was a variant of the original virus.
reconnected until we are sure there is no further threat," said Thompson.
communities of Greater Manchester, but at this stage it is not clear where the
virus has come from but we are investigating how it happened and will be taking
steps to prevent it from happening again," he added.
they plug into has the autorun feature enabled, which will run any executables ?
such as the virus ? when the stick is plugged in.
systems can set off autorun by default, or only allow system access to specific
USB keys ? called USB port access control. The ultimate protection can be
obtained by setting up the security software to disable all USB ports, and some
IT managers have physically blocked up the ports to stop people using USB
devices.
(MS08-067). Microsoft?s web site records five variants of Conficker A to E, and
the software giant has offered a reward for the discovery of the author of the
initial version of the virus.
added the feature to propagate through USB devices.
likely that it infected the police systems via an infected USB stick. After
all, they've had well over a year to put the Microsoft patch in place.?
stop them bringing USB sticks inside the firewall, there are steps that can be
taken by vigilant IT managers to minimise the risk. ?More and more organisations
are looking to USB port access control ? it doesn't just help stop malware, it
can stop sensitive data from leaking out too,? said Cluley.
(Querying Using Enhanced Search Techniques), as well as a vehicle query function
called VODS (Vehicle Online Descriptive Search) and Automatic Number Plate
Recognition (ANPR).
the Comparative Case Analysis Tool (CCA), used to help solve serious serial-type
crimes through pattern recognition to link incident similarities.
February 2009 Manchester City Council?s IT system was infected, causing an
estimated �1.5m of disruption, believed to have been caused by USB memory
devices.
Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2257206/greater-manchester-police
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