FBI Probes Computer Virus That Could Disrupt Emergency Calls
A computer virus that could disrupt 911 emergency services is being investigated after it was detected in the Houston area, the FBI said in a statement on Monday.
Search warrants were issued in the case last week, but no arrests have been made, said a spokesman for the agency, which has made computer security a top priority since leading Web sites came under cyberattack in February.
The agency said the self-propagating virus erases hard drives, then causes infected computers to dial 911 emergency telephone numbers and leave the line open.
“A call of this nature could potentially cause local emergency personnel to respond to false 911 calls,” the agency said. It said local 911 services in Houston had not detected a “significant increase” in the number of such calls.
The National Infrastructure Protection Center in Washington said the virus was spread by source computers that “scanned several thousand computers through four Internet service providers [including] America Online, AT&T;, MCI and Netzero.”
The virus spreads by attacking computers with Windows operating systems set up to allow users to share files over the Internet, it said.
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