Ambulance service disrupted by computer virus infection

The St John Ambulance service in New Zealand fell victim to a computer virus infection last week, according to media reports, which disabled its automated response systems across the country.

The service, which provides 90% of the emergency and non-emergency ambulance cover for the New Zealand population, was struck by a malware attack on Wednesday forcing staff to allocate ambulances manually according to Alan Goudge, communications operations manager for the St John Ambulance service:

“Anti-virus software protected the systems but as a result of the virus it impacted on some of the systems services, mainly those related to paging and radio. Back-up systems immediately took over when it was detected and the workload was managed manually.”

No details appear to have been made available about which precise piece…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.