French Fighters Grounded by Computer Virus

The recent incidences shows that even the most systems that we think to be highly secured are vulnerable to virus attacks. The incident in which the French Navy's fighter planes were unable to download their fight plans as the databases were attacked by a Microsoft virus.

However, the French navy admitted that during the time it took to disinfect the virusThe incident forced the defence authorities to use the traditional systems like telephone, fax and post. Naval officials said the infection was probably due more to negligence than a deliberate attempt to compromise French national security. It said it suspected someone at the navy had used an infected USB key

Antivirus 2009- A new virus

A new threat that comes disguised as a genuine antivirus program has become
increasingly prevalent . Offering to scan and remove malware from your
PC, this rogue will actually install a Trojan on your unsuspecting system. The process is usually initiated when you click a link for what you believe is valid security software or its vendor's site.
Such adverts are not only a nuisance when browsing online -- fake ads appear on reputable sites that make use of third-party advertising -- but they are designed to rip off consumers by tempting them to pay for a worthless program. Worse still, these rogue applications infect your PC with a problem they claim can only be 'fixed' by purchasing extra software.

If you have fallen victim to this virus hoax, stop by the Help Desk immediately to reserve time for virus removal from your system.

Mysterious New Computer Virus May Be 'Sleeper' Agent

A computer virus that may leave Microsoft Windows users vulnerable to digital hijacking is spreading through companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia, already infecting close to 9 million machines, according to a private online security firm.

Though computer bugs have become a common affliction, Finland-based F-Secure says a virus it has been tracking for the past several weeks has surged more rapidly through corporate networks than anything they've seen in years. But the virus doesn't appear to be working as its designers intended.

F-Secure's chief security adviser, Patrik Runald, said the virus's coding suggests a type of bug that alerts computer users to bogus infections on their machines and offers to help by selling them antivirus software. Instead, the virus is simply spreading to little effect, though it may still pose a threat to infected computers.

Microsoft issued a security update Tuesday to deal with the so-called "Downadup" or "Conficker" virus, which appears to be a new version of a bug that popped up in October. "Over the last couple of weeks, a new variant of this worm has been affecting customers," the company acknowledged in a blog post.

Microsoft said the virus is spreading by gaining access to one computer and then guessing at passwords of other users in the same network: "If the password is weak, it may succeed."

A company representative couldn't immediately be reached Saturday to comment on F-Secure's estimate of infected machines. Most computers with Windows will automatically download Microsoft's security update, but Hypponen said the virus disables updates on infected machines. While the origin of the virus is a mystery, F-Secure's best guess is it came from Ukraine.