Worm turns as police computers power up

Reporter: Richard Hooton
Date online: 04 February 2010

GREATER Manchester Police’s computer system is now fully operational after a virus was removed.

Officers had been cut off from a national database and other criminal justice systems for more than four days to prevent the costly bug from spreading.

It meant officers had to ask neighbouring forces to carry out national checks on names and vehicles.

Experts disconnected GMP from the national computer after finding the Conficker worm virus on Friday, which quickly took down internet connections and e-mail accounts.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Thompson said: “It is not destructive and no data has been lost but due to the speed it had spread we temporarily cut off our access to the national computer and other criminal justice systems to prevent further infection.

“We had systems in place to ensure this did not affect our service to the communities of Greater Manchester. It is still not clear where the virus has come from but we are investigating how this happened and taking steps to prevent it from happening again.”

The virus may have been introduced by a member of staff plugging a personal memory stick into a computer. Police do not believe the force was deliberately targeted by the virus, a malicious worm thought to have infected up to 15 million computers around the world.