When an employee plugged a memory stick infected with the Conficker D virus into a PC on Ealing council’s network last May, it crippled the computer system for several days and lead to a bill of more than £500,000 it has been revealed.
Reports said the virus spread quickly to infect the network, and after IT staff had rebuilt all infected machines, the virus struck again.
Email and the phone system were affected, and the BBC reported that the authority had to a pay for emergency IT work.
Although the Council’s network was disabled for four days, it is said that services were not back to normal for several weeks.
Ealing apparently lost £90,000 in parking ticket revenue after issued tickets couldn’t be processed and a further £25,000 in fines and booking fees which could not be issued by the library service.
Some of the council’s property rent went uncollected, and £14,000 was spent on clearing housing benefit claims.
A report being considered by councillors has warned the final cost could top £1.1 million, if a new computer security system is needed.
