Fergie's Tech Blog

Bot Infection Crashes Michigan County Computers

Eric Hjerstedt Sharp writes in The Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe:

A computer virus which was spread to the county's server by the State of Michigan's system is most likely the cause of the downed server, according to emergency management coordinator Jim Loeper.

Computers at the Gogebic County Sheriff's Department and at the county offices at the courthouse next door -- with the exception of the circuit court computer system -- have been down since Wednesday night due to problems with the servers caused by the virus, Loeper said.

The circuit court computer system is an independent system with a separate server, Loeper added.

Loeper was at the courthouse Sunday night with county computer technicians assessing the problem, and was not available for comment. However, Loeper did contact the Daily Globe Monday afternoon with details of the server glitch.

According to Loeper, a trojan horse virus named "w32.Rinbot.b" is the suspected virus which had infected the system, most likely from the United Kingdom.

posted by Fergie @ 2/27/2007 10:53:00 PM