Tiburon employee infects over 1,000 county computers
A bothersome computer virus that struck Douglas County's system last week has been traced to a laptop computer used by a software vendor.
The virus, a variant of the W32.Spybot worm, was introduced into the county computer network following a visit by a representative of Tiburon Inc., which supplies the software used by the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. The Tiburon employee plugged in her laptop during a visit Wednesday afternoon, allowing the virus to infect the 1,000 computers on the county's network.
County computer officials shut down the county's network the next morning, when the virus was discovered. Information Technology Department officials notified Symantec Corp., the supplier of the county's anti-virus software, and they were able to develop a fix for the virus and send out a patch to protect the network's computers from further attack.
The virus did not destroy any data, nor did it steal any information contained in county computer files, said Kevin Potter, the county's Information Technology director. The virus did try to gain access to the Internet, where it could have infected other unsuspecting computer users, but the county's firewall prevented it from roaming outside the county's network.
Potter notified Tiburon about the discovery that the virus originated from its computer on Friday. The same representative who came to Douglas County was on her way to another field visit and was told not to connect her laptop to any other system.
