Gogebic County Computer System Assaulted

Many of the Secretary of State offices were shutdown by a massive virus attack.

The virus started its game of destruction on 27 March 2007morning. Clogging the networks with information overload it caused the systems to either run slow or stop completely.

The computer system of the county is 100% operational, claimed Brad Noren, IT man from Gogebic County on the next day of the attack. DAIY GLOBE published this statement on 29 March 2007.

Richard Adams - Prosecutor of Gogebic County who's in the state's contact said that most of the systems in the state were successfully shut down since many ports on the internal firewall were being hit with an appeal from a virus which appeared from somewhere in their system, as DAILY GLOBE published on 29 March 2007.

In an email sent to Adams, on Tuesday, the state noted that Michigan State's networks were experiencing an assault of virus. The state was making a combined attempt for containing and eliminating the virus. The state, at its end, was internally blocking TCP & UDP port 2967.

The other email said the govt. was upgrading its old systems to Windows XP.

Years ago, exactly the same was done by Noren to the courthouse system of the county. He also stressed on upgrading the computers of the prosecutor's office to newer systems and OSs, said Adams.

According to Adams, Noren determined that the virus got in to the system of the country via 2 older PCs in the office of the prosecutor. The country then bought two new advanced computers & put them online.

A forensic examination of the hard drive of country computers is being carried out by the state. The examination will help them check if the virus propagated from their end or do they accept their responsibility.

The state is continuously denying its hand in the computer virus of Gogebic County.

State officials claim to have easily removed the virus and they wonder as to why did it take weeks for the County officials to accomplish, said Adams.

The virus had already cost above $20,000 to the County in the beginning of March 2007, and the costs were still mounting. However no figure had been determined so far.

A virus had struck the County on 7 March 2007morning, and infected nearly 200 computers. However, officials immediately shut the network down to stop it then and there. This resulted in disabling of thousands of workstations.

Related article: Gogebic County’s Computers Shut Down Due to Virus

» SPAMfighter News - 4/7/2007