Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

U.K. City Unable to Issue Traffic Tickets After Conficker Attack

by Caleb Johnson on July 1, 2009 at 12:02 PM

In the occasional rush to get to the office on time, just about all of us have either illegally driven in the carpool lane or exceeded posted speed limits. Sometimes, you get caught and pay a fine, and sometimes, you get away scot-free. Call it luck and thank the Lord, but drivers in Manchester, England have something else to thank for eluding recent traffic fines -- the Conficker worm.

The Register reports that after Conficker infected the city's computer systems in February, more than 1,600 drivers who were spotted on camera driving illegally in bus lanes were saved from paying fines totaling £43,000, or about $71,300. In response, the city disabled all USB ports on government computers and outlawed memory sticks, which it claims caused the infection. All in all, the worm cost the city nearly £1.5 million, or $2.4 million, between unpaid fines, consultants' fees, clean-up costs, extra staff, and a new backup strategy for its system.

While that's certainly not chump change, consider the Cyber Secure Institute's estimate -- that the worm will cost the U.S. economy (not the government, itself) about $9.1 billion. [From: The Register and the Cyber Secure Institute]

Tags: computer, conficker, government, police, traffic, worms

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular