Viral siege for DHB

LATEST: A computer virus which shut down the entire Waikato District Health Board is an "embarrassing" incident, local IT experts believe.

The DHB was still at the mercy of the destructive Conficker computer virus this morning which had shut down 3000 computers, causing mayhem for 5600 staff and their patients.

DHB spokesperson Mary Anne Gill said the system was likely to be down over the weekend because of the virus, which struck at 2am yesterday.

The hospital was accepting only emergency cases and the public were advised to stay away unless absolutely necessary.

Patients awaiting lab test results had been sent home if they were well enough.

But Computer Troubleshooters owner Dennis Jones said there was no excuse for a network of the DHB's size to be infected by the well-known international virus.

"I don't personally know the security systems in place at the DHB but I do know that if one of my customers was infected with Conficker I would be extremely disappointed," he said. The virus had been around for more than a year, along with patches to protect against it.

"The bigger the system the harder they are to secure as it can be spread by USB device, so security is even more important," Mr Jones said.
"Given that it's a public service it's even more crucial to have high levels of security."

Mrs Gill said the hospital was taking a cautious approach. "It is a really aggressive virus, and cleverly designed and constructed. We have commenced restarting desktops across key clinical and service locations such as the emergency department and intensive care unit.

We also made a trial start logging on a small number of devices to provoke the virus and so we can undertake disinfecting action," Mrs Gill said.

She said the Waikato DHB had been up to date and fully patched with anti-virus software before the viral attack.

The outage affected Waikato Hospital and hospitals in Thames, Taumarunui, Tokoroa and Te Kuiti, as well as community, maternity and continuing care facilities in Te Awamutu and Morrinsville.

Incident controller Kevin Harris said the virus was known to rapidly attack a computer network and search for passwords.

Anyone with an easy password would find themselves exposed.

Mr Harris said there had been no problem delivering critical care for patients.

While Conficker is the first computer virus known to attack the DHB, it is not the first time the organisation has suffered network issues.

In October 2007 years of work belonging to 690 staff vanished after a major computer error.

Other health providers rallied to support the DHB, including St John and other DHBs, and Braemar private hospital.

- © Fairfax NZ News