You may think you’re having a bad day when your computer gets a virus, but it could be worse: a British aircraft carrier could be infected. Or a whole bunch of them.
The UK Ministry of Defence spokesman said today, “We can confirm there is a computer virus affecting a small number of MoD systems; however, there is no impact on operations. Immediate action has already been taken to clean up the infected systems and protect them from re-infection.”
Luckily, the infection is only through administrative systems. Unluckily, it’s very widespread, including the HMS Ark Royal.
The infection, through an unnamed virus, struck the MoD on the 6th of January and has so far only denied network access to some areas, but the entire MoD mail system has been shut down to alleviate repairs.
The MoD is confident that the virus was not an attempt to infiltrate the system, and that no personal data has been compromised. It is still checking whether any payment systems have been compromised.
The secretary of state for defense also admitted that only 27 percent of MoD IT systems fully meet government security guidelines.
Source: ZDNet
