[LINK] Virus downs NSW ambulance system

[Alex (Maxious) Sadleir]

On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 3:39 PM, Peter Bowditch <peter at ratbags.com> wrote:
>
> > http://www.zdnet.com.au/virus-downs-nsw-ambulance-system-339309172.htm
> > >>> The ambulance service's computer dispatch system became infected by
> > >> a virus at about 1pm on Saturday
> > >
> > > No mention of the operating system. Why not?
> >
> > Heh, heh!  No mention of which AV they were running either!  That could
> > be useful to know too.
>
> The thing that has been missing in all the discussion of this is how well-
> planned and effective the disaster plan was. Without the computers
> everybody switched over to pencil, paper and mobile phones, just as the
> training said to do do.
Well the discussion I saw immediately pointed at the 2007 press
release which claimed a second data center (and a live backup of every
individual component - no mention of AV software) was being procured
to provide a backup:
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/5307/nsw_ambulance_service_seeks_data_centre_cure/

Supposedly this would provide 99.995 percent availability ie. less
than 4.5 hours average downtime per year (if my math is correct). Also
apparently the paper-and-pencil system is used during system
maintenance so the staff are familiar with it. That in itself provides
a good message from this; test your staff training and your DR backup
systems regularly and in different scenarios!