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Week in Review: Viruses targeting our hospitals

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Virtual worlds and London hospitals were targeted by unscrupulous malware writers this week.

By Asavin Wattanajantra, 21 Nov 2008 at 11:36

A virus has managed to bring down London hospitals – not the traditional one that could give you a fever and send you to bed, but a computer version called Mytob.

It has managed to bring the systems down of three hospitals including St Barts, forcing them to run on backups and causing them to divert ambulances. A serious and rather worrying example of the damage malware can do.

A team of world crime experts all agree that cybercrime is only going to get worse. It’s claimed that it could even be as bad as the credit crisis.

Could Microsoft’s new free-virus software help? Symantec and McAfee might not want it to!

Also beware… the criminals are infiltrating the virtual worlds. An European report revealed that virtual worlds such as Second Life are being increasingly targeted by malware writers.

They are looking to steal virtual property, which now often has a real world value. But users must also be wary of giving out personal details as they would be on a traditional social networking site.

Also check out this blog as our staff writer manages to anger the entire Second Life community.

With the iPlayer a massive success, BBC will further enhance its internet platform by making BBC 1 and BBC 2 available for live streaming, following successful trials with its other digital channels.

It’s going to make the whole enforcement of TV licensing an issue. It may be easy enough to check whether people are watching television, but new technology will probably be needed to check whether computer users are watching live streams, which does require a licence.

Good news for fans of the Oyster card though. Although TfL cancelled its original Oyster deal, it has signed a new contract with two major investors.

And check out the IT PRO podcast to listen to views on all these stories as well as technology editor Benny’s verdict on the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X1.

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