worm hit county jail!

11Alive News
Atlanta, Ga
October 10, 2003

The Fulton County Jail is slowly becoming fully operational after being hit
by a computer worm that delayed the release of dozens of inmates.

The jail has now began releasing inmates as computers are restored.

The worm shut down every computer in the Fulton County government also brought jail
operations to a virtual standstill Wednesday.

As a result, inmates who have posted bond and should be freed to go home have been
forced to remain behind bars.

Even though the system slowly restarted on Friday, the problems created when the worm
hit on Wednesday would take some time to resolve, officials said.

"We are erring on the side of caution," said Lt. Clarence Huber of the Fulton County
Sheriff's Department. Huber said the only inmates who have been released are those who
have had thorough, albeit manual, checks on their backgrounds.

Otherwise, he said, "The probability of releasing inmates who have outstanding warrants
from other jurisdictions is very high. We have to check them before releasing them."

Some frustrated family members said they've spent hours on the phone trying to get
their loved ones home.

"He's spending an extra night (in jail) and maybe an extra two nights because they're
telling me they don't know when the system is going to come up," Kimberly Anderson said
of her husband Jarious.

"He's angry but he has to deal with it. He can't release himself."

Anderson said she posted bond Thursday on a simple battery charge placed against her
husband. Because the computers were down, the sheriff could not check to see if there
are outstanding warrants against him.

"Like I explained to bonding, that's not Jarious' fault cause he's bonded out and not
only that, people who had signature bonds yesterday, they can't be released," she said.

Lt. Huber said he did not have an exact number of inmates who have been kept in the
jail due to the worm.

A Fulton County spokeswoman, Jessica Corbett, told 11Alive News that the trojan worm
came into the system through a communications port on Wednesday. She said technicians
have been working around the clock to bring the system back up to speed.

Aside from the jail, drivers licenses, tag renewals, and court operations were also
disrupted.

The County says technicians are continuing to work to get all computers back online.

They were all running a version of Windows operating systems! Tsk,tsk!

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