Computers in the National Health Service (NHS) have been hit by 8,000 viruses in the last year alone.

More4News instigated A Freedom of Information investigation which discovered the extent of the virus attacks which have included all sorts of malicious code including worms, Trojans and spyware. This has in some cases caused havoc within some departments of the NHS, causing postponed appointments, diverted ambulances and staff being locked out of their computers.

Apart from the widespread inconvenience, this has caused one department to suffer a three-week back-log of appointments.

One virus was caused Mytob and was a worm which caused chaos throughout London hospitals in November, 2008. Mytob quickly infiltrated networks and computers and simply overloaded systems.

But far from indicating a complete failure of the NHS computer systems, security experts say that it comes down to NHS IT staff not updating their systems properly. In other words, most of the virus attacks could have been prevented with effective IT management.

And for those that are concerned that such a lack of security might mean that their personal records might one day appear on the internet for all to see, the NHS point out that electronic records are protected by the highest levels of security.

After suffering 8,000 virus attacks in on year, that might be hard for many to believe.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

According to a recent report, around 12 million computers users in the U.K. have been on the wrong end of a virus attack in the last six months.

Viruses come in many shapes and forms, but people are now getting used to the words worm, hacker, malware and spyware.

And the report bemoans the fact that despite there being acres of media coverage on malicious computer attacks, and there being a multitude of anti-virus products, so many people still continue to fall foul of the cybercriminals.

The report also questions why such attacks continue, given the fact that 95% of those questioned claim to use anti-virus software protection.

Worryingly, of those attacked, nearly 40% stated the attack caused a problem to their system, with 10% saying that a virus attack had made their computer unusable. And 5% said that they had personal information stolen.

Nearly 10% admitted that the attack had followed after a visit to an adult content website, which proved theories that many cybercriminals use such sites to attract the unwary.

And when it comes to virus attacks, it seems that men are more vulnerable than women. Some 27% of men were affected, as opposed to 21% of women. Not surprisingly, it was the youngster being caught more often than their elders. Of those under 20, nearly 40% had been affected by a virus.

The report highlighted the latest worm scare that had worried computer security experts and users alike was the Conficker. Also known as Downadup and Kido, this worm has infiltrated an estimated 15 million computers worldwide and turns them into slaves, or zombies. They then form part of a botnet which is under the control of the hacker, and can either be used to issue millions of spam emails, or steal information off the systems.

The zombie computer, once infected, is helpless as it becomes under the control of the hacker. It opens the ‘back door’, allowing spyware and other malicious programmes to be downloaded deep into its systems. The user usually remains unaware of what is happening, especially as the worm stops the on-board anti-virus programme working.

Guest Article by Neil Camp