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Malware infections: A serious problem for the NHS

The NHS is facing a bigger problem from Malware than reports may suggest, it has been claimed.

Three London hospitals were attacked by the MyTob worm last November, forcing hospitals to briefly re-route ambulances.

According to an investigation into the infection, it occurred in-part because simple security procedures were not followed.

A study carried out by More4 News showed that 8,000 computers had been infected by a virus and 12 of the departments hit had been responsible for clinical care.

Following a Freedom of Information Act request, Wirral University Teaching Hospital said none of its clinical departments had been compromised by a viruses or malware in 2007-08.

The organisation said that regular updates of its anti-virus software were part of its security process.

Commenting on the hospital's policy, the trust said: "Central anti-virus servers update from the vendors site at specific periods, these updates are cascaded to local / site servers and the clients are updated from there."

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