27 Mar 2009
The parliamentary IT system has suffered a virus attack, according to reports.
Channel 4 News said last night that parliament has been hit by the Conficker worm, which attacks Microsoft's Windows operating systems and is designed to take control of all infected computers on 1 April.
The worm is well known to security firms who have updated their anti-virus products accordingly, casting doubt on how up-to-date parliament's malware protection systems are.
The Houses of Parliament refused to say when the anti-virus systems were last updated.
Computing was unable to reach the Parliamentary Information and Communications Technology Department for further comment.
Channel 4 reported that an email was sent to staff warning about the virus which included the following request: "We therefore ask that if you are running a PC or portable computer not authorised to be on the network that you take it off immediately."
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