Trojan Malware Penetrates British Navy Defences

The Ministry of Defence has acknowledged that a computer virus managed to bring down the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force's communications network and affected up to 75 percent of the UK naval forces (although this figure was not confirmed)

According to the BBC, the virus attacked email and internet services but did not have any impact on the more sensitive navigational and weaponry systems that probably use a more secure and different network.

The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was one of the 24 Royal Air Force bases and Royal Navy vessels infected by the virus which forced crew members to communicate with their families through their personal mobile phones.

A spokesperson for the Navy said that the viral attack had been "contained" and that the virus, which was tagged a minor blip, had not "specifically been targeted at the MoD".

The Register wrote that the system which was compromised was the Navystar one which is basically a set of computers attached to a server and supplied by Fujitsu.

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