14 DAY TRIAL // The systems of the St John's ambulance service in New Zealand were disabled temporarily after a piece of malware infected their computers.
According to Waikato Times, the communication centers that handle more than a million calls each year were affected by the virus whose origins are not yet known.
“Anti-virus software protected the systems but as a result of the virus it impacted on some of the systems services, mainly those related to paging and radio. Back-up systems immediately took over when it was detected and the workload was managed manually,” said ambulance communications operations manager Alan Goudge.
“Any responses of concern that result from the investigations will be followed up with patients and family involved.”
In a normal situation, all the calls that come in to the national 111 emergency number are handled by a mobile data terminal and a paging system. The structure makes sure most of the notification process is automated but since the system was down, the job had to be done by employees using station phones and even in person.
“Without forensic access to the system it's hard to gauge what went on, however in most cases a virus is transferred from a memory stick plugged into the system,” said a Hamilton IT expert. “One would expect a system like this to have strict controls around memory stick use.”
Virus attacks on medical facilities were seen even since 2005 when Sophos experts analyzed a zombie network that affected 50,000 computers belonging to healthcare and military units. At the time, a 20-year-old was charged for launching an attack which took out the computers in the intensive care unit of a hospital, preventing doctors from working properly.
Unfortunately, these sort of attacks are among the more dangerous ones. In situations where the presence of an ambulance can save a life, a minute counts more than anyone thinks.