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Michael Jackson e-mail virus mucks up computer system at Saint Al’s

Patrick Orr - Idaho Statesman

Published: 07/03/09


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An employee download of an attachment on a Michael Jackson spam e-mail which turned out to be a computer virus has resulted in significant computer problems for Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center this week — but hospital officials say patient care is not affected.

Tech crews have been working long hours to fix the problem, which began after an employee mistakenly downloaded the attachment around 7 p.m. Wednesday, Saint Al’s spokeswoman Kristen Micheletti said Friday.

The “malicious virus” has rendered inoperable somewhere between 300-to-400 computers out of about 4,500 work stations on the Saint Al’s campus, Micheletti said. Those computers have been swapped out for other laptops or PC’s, with replacements in clinical areas being the highest priority, Micheletti said.

Saint Al’s IT techs are still working on purging the virus from the computer system, however.

“There is a variety of things happening — slow log-ins, programs shutting down, glitches ... We have a whole team working on it. It’s a major headache for us but it hasn’t hurt patient care,” Micheletti said. “We have stopped the spread, and we are in clean up mode now. It’s been a bear for the IT people.”

Micheletti said hospital officials tell all employees to delete spam e-mails, but “it’s amazing what does get through sometimes.”

The virus is a variant of one that was sent around the Internet in February, she said.

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