According to media reports, motorists trying to receive or renew
driving licenses and identification cards in Denver, Colorado have
been forced to tolerate delays due to a computer virus.
As many as 20,000 residents of Colorado are said to have been
inconvenienced by the virus infection at the Department of
Revenue's Motor Vehicle Business Group which has affected computer
systems since Friday 17 September 2004.
The virus, which has not been named, forced the computer system
to be shut down at 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and affected an
estimated 63 offices throughout Colorado, Diane Reimer, a
spokesperson for the Department of Revenue's Motor Vehicle Business
Group, told the Denver Post.
"Over a thousand new viruses are being seen in our labs each
month, so it's essential to keep your anti-virus software
up-to-date and ensure you have the very best security in place to
prevent infection," said Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant for Sophos. "As can be seen by this incident - it's not
just computer users who are inconvenienced by the virus writers.
Regular people going about their daily business are being driven to
distraction by malware attacks."
Sophos recommends companies protect their systems with a
consolidated solution to thwart the virus
and spam threats as well as secure their desktop and servers with
automatically updated anti-virus protection.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.