Virus attacks and disables ambulance response system

[Bearcat]

A computer virus took out the automated response system of a major New Zealand ambulance company last week, leaving drivers in the dark and forcing employees to adjust their emergency procedures for two days.

The Nov. 9 malware attack hit the communication centers of St. John, an ambulance company serving nearly 90 percent of New Zealand's population. For two days, the computer systems that allow call center employees to alert drivers via on-board mobile data terminals (MDT) were disabled.

Ambulance communications operations manager Alan Goudge told New Zealand's Waikato Times that "anti-virus software protected the systems" — some of which field more than 1 million calls per year — but the service related to paging and radio was affected. "Backup systems immediately took over when it was detected and the workload as managed manually."

With their MDTs down, drivers were unable to receive basic information about the emergencies to which they responded. When St. John dispatchers received a 111 call (the New Zealand version of 911), they had to call drivers on landlines, or relay information about emergencies in person.

The virus has been contained, and Goudge said the company is investigating how it entered St. John's system, who sent it and for what reason. He said there have been no reports so far indicating that emergency response times were slowed.

When cyber crime and human health collide, the results can be shocking and disastrous. In August at the Black Hat Security Conference, researcher Jay Radcliffe showed how a hacker could remotely tamper with two electronic insulin pumps.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45293551...ence-security/

Hard to believe that someone would target an ambulance service...

[Raymond]

That's sick! I wonder if this is a targeted attack or the virus just propagated into the ambulance response system?

[sujay]

I thought things like this could happen only in movies. Hard to digest the reality.

[Bearcat]

I wonder if this is a targeted attack or the virus just propagated into the ambulance response system?

Good question. That thought didn't occur to me when I first read the article.

[jj1two3]

That is really sick. Very, very low down.

[luffy]

Probably this is called Beta Testing new virus?

[BigGuy]

I feel bad for anyone who might have been hurt by this.

[JayCub]

Hard to believe that anyone could sink so low, with the introduction of the Internet few things surprise me these days but this certainly does, and like BigGuy stated... just lets hope no-one got hurt because of these idiots.......

---------- Post added at 01:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:41 PM ----------

Probably this is called Beta Testing new virus?

Let hope not and this is rectified quickly if it can happen in New-Zealand it could happen anywhere...

[Raymond]

It definitely won't happen in Malaysia because they are not so high tech having computers to control the ambulance response system.

Old is Gold eh?

[Bearcat]

It definitely won't happen in Malaysia because they are not so high tech having computers to control the ambulance response system.

Old is Gold eh?

I keep telling myself that with every passing year Raymond! But yeah, I think back on how things were when I was a kid and I would gladly go back to that time as an adult.