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| Sophos products can defend against the Agobot
worm |
The Singapore government has confirmed that all 360 of its schools
were forced to temporarily disconnect from the internet in a bid to
contain a version of the Agobot worm.
The worm was found to have infected at least 30 schools on
Monday 10 May, according to a statement from the Ministry of
Education (MOE). All national schools were disconnected from the
internet the following day, with some remaining offline until the
end of the week.
"To prevent the worm from spreading to other schools and the MOE
headquarters, all national schools were temporarily disconnected
from the MOE network on 11 May," the statement explained. It went
on to report that all schools would be reconnected to the
Ministry's network once anti-virus products had been updated on the
school computers.
"Versions of the Agobot worm can disable anti-virus software and
firewall protection, so it's essential for all users of computers
to ensure their defences are properly in place," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Singapore is one
of the most technologically advanced nations in Asia with internet
use common at both home, school and the workplace. Any organisation
which uses computers need to follow safe computing advice and
reduce the risk of virus and hacker attack."
Students were able to continue to use computers in the schools
for activities not related to the internet.
Last week in Germany six men were charged in
connection with writing and distributing versions of the Agobot
worm.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.