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Agencies in region revert to paper
A well-known and “insidious” worm has shut down access to a regional information system used by hundreds of law enforcement and related agencies who use the system to — among other things — check for warrants, run license plates, and look up past police reports.
The Northwest Ohio Regional Information System, headquartered at Government Center, was working intermittently Wednesday and then went into a full shutdown Thursday morning after being hit by the worm known as Conficker, said the system’s director, Pat Wright.
“We have a computer worm and a very nasty one,” Mr. Wright said. “We’re working through our recovery plan and our goal is to have users from the outside connected [Friday] evening.”
Several affected agencies reported late Friday that they still did not have access to their systems.
Officials do not believe the worm resulted from a hacker, but “only a fool would say someone can’t hack into their system,” Mr. Wright said.
The shutdown has affected numerous agencies, including Toledo police, the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office, Toledo Municipal Court, and hundreds of smaller, regional agencies.
The municipal court clerk’s office, which has a completely computer-based system, was operating with minimal staffing on Friday, with 36 people off work because of the shutdown.
“We’re trying to get the most serious cases through the system,” clerk Vallie Bowman-English said. “We’re doing what we can that doesn’t require a computer.”
Staff in the clerk’s office tracked arraignments and hearings on paper, which created a backlog of work that will require overtime for updating the electronic system once it’s up and running, Ms. Bowman-English said.
“Right now we’re doing things like they did in the ’90s, but the good part of that is that we have people who were here in the ’90s and they remember how to do it,” Ms. Bowman-English said. “They could find the forms and easily revert back to the ways they used to do it.”
It’s unclear how Conficker made its way into the information system, Mr. Wright said. The worm is known to be transmitted through a memory stick and uploads to a computer until the program files automatically execute.
Mr. Wright said the system is being updated to prevent auto-execute programs.
In January, the Berkey Police Department — which uses NORIS — reported to the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office that its computers were stolen. Mr. Wright said the reported theft was “news to me.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” he added. “I’m not a network [guy] and I’m definitely not a security guy, but it’s possible that would thwart a lot of the security controls you have on.”
Berkey officials could not be reached for comment.
Mr. Wright said that, although the worm could transmit stored data, data are not being attacked and authorities do not believe information will be lost.
“Truthfully, this is not malicious,” he said. “It does things that bother and perturb you, but it’s not trying to hack your database. Now, there are derivatives of this that will get in there, but we’re not seeing that kind of activity.”
Agencies from the region had to find other ways to get through the day-to-day operations and gain access to pertinent information.
Oregon police Sgt. Tim Zale said his department “can’t retrieve records like we once did, we can’t process records like we once did,” but “we’re not totally out there in the dark.”
The Oregon force, like Toledo’s, can use the Law Enforcement Agency Data System to pull and enter information such as warrants.
For old reports that might be needed for a background check or for an investigation, Sergeant Zale said his department was pulling paper reports by hand.
“It has definitely impaired our ability to do our daily operations,” said Lucas County Sheriff’s Lt. Tricia White.
Most of the sheriff’s office’s computer interfaces were built using NORIS, so simple tasks — such as booking and releasing inmates — have been affected.
Corrections officers, the lieutenant said, have to book inmates by writing out the forms by hand .
“I think that we’re probably being more cautious in making sure everything is up to par before we’re processing those releases,” she said. “It’s slowed the release process.”
Lieutenant White added that, because of the widespread outage, she thinks the number of suspects taken to the jail has dropped.
The sheriff’s office is using the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Bowling Green dispatch center to do checks as necessary for deputies on road patrol, Lieutenant White said.
Monica Moll, chief of Bowling Green State University’s police department, said her officers — who use NORIS to write reports in their cruisers and dispatch call information — wrote reports using word processing software in the station. Dispatchers also have gave additional information over the radio instead of using NORIS to send more detailed call information to a computer in an officer’s cruiser.
“We’re going back to the tried-and-true methods,” Chief Moll said.
“We’re using Word documents to develop dispatch logs and keep information. … The radio traffic will sound similar [to normal].”
If her officers have to run a warrant check or look up a license plate, for example, they can call the Wood County Sheriff’s Office or Bowling Green police, who do not use NORIS.
Carol Armitage, 911 director of the Defiance County Sheriff’s Office — which has a growing pile of paperwork to enter into the system — said agencies are able to access some information through the Ohio Attorney General’s Web site using the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, although the process is slow.
Delta Police Officer Keith Thompson said the burden there is more on the shoulders of dispatchers, who run license plates and warrant checks for officers.
“It creates more work load for dispatchers. They have to focus on that part of it instead of other stuff they’re responsible for,” the officer said.
When the system is down, he said, there is a “little small safety issue” because, when officers stop a vehicle, for example, they may not know who is inside.
Clay Township police Chief Terry Mitchell echoed the concerns and said his department has had to rely on Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office dispatch for checks and information.
Mr. Wright said this is the longest outage the system has ever experienced, probably longer than every outage from the last 10 years combined.
In 2009, Microsoft Corp. put up a $250,000 reward for anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Conficker’s creators.
Contact Taylor Dungjen at: tdungjen@theblade.com or 419-724-6054.
Article source: http://www.toledoblade.com/Police-Fire/2012/02/25/Authorities-slowed-by-computer-worm.html
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