German Ministry of Education Throws Away PCs For 190,000 € Due To Infection

[Gimli]

"German IT magazine Heise reports (original in German) that the Ministry of Education in Schwerin had a Conficker virus infection on 170 machines, that was dealt with by simply throwing them on the trash. Other German authorities have now decided that 'the approach taken is not up to the principle of efficiency and economy' and that the 187,300 Euro invested in this radical form of virus removal were inappropriate. The ministry had earlier estimated the cost of cleaning their desktops and servers by more conventional means to 130,000 Euro."

Source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/04/30/029216/german-ministry-of-education-throws-away-pcs-for-190000-due-to-infection

Made my day 

[Exterminator]

I should consider making some viruses myself...

[Honigsenf]

lol, our bureaucracy

case 1 - there was a rest of incentives which would become obsolete when not used until end of quarter / year
case 2 - any related of civil servants in the ministry had a bad running computer shop and get the call for bids with a little help  :devroll:

[Gandalf]

130.000 Euro to clean 170 computers?  :wow:
Anyone know where to apply for a contract to clean infected PC's at Eur 750 each?

[Devin]

Fuck logic...  :conf:
Next thing a PC will be thrown away because it has dust inside of the case.

[Eps_Smalls]

764.705882Eur per computer ? wtf 

[[WS]Jacob]

Should have sold them to technology places abroad, maybe they could have used them for education or something.

[SugarD]

130.000 Euro to clean 170 computers?  :wow:
Anyone know where to apply for a contract to clean infected PC's at Eur 750 each?

Agreed. If you find out, let me know. I'll be glad to clean those systems.

[Kirgiz]

Wow, I can do it for 100,000 euro! Look, my bargain is 30,000 cheaper!!!


Seriously, one does not simply back up important data and format the drive, or what?

[Ziad]

WOAH  :conf: they aren't using linux ? thats strange..

[SugarD]

WOAH  :conf: they aren't using linux ? thats strange..

Most of the world still prefers Windows. That argument also does not work. Linux can get viruses too. Every OS can. That is a huge false security with *nix and Mac OS users.

[ElMartu]

It's definitely not virus-free but the risk is way lower

GNU/Linux is used on servers mostly though, not 'front-end' computers

[SugarD]

It's definitely not virus-free but the risk is way lower

That is another false claim. The more people that use it, the more viruses that will arise. The only reason why Windows is the most exploited is because it is the most popular. With Mac OS popularity picking up so much over the years, Mac OS users have finally begun to learn from their false security too. Linux is also starting to pick up the pace, so it is only a matter of time until that argument finally becomes completely null and void in the computing world.

What people fail to realize is that hackers and malicious users attack what they can cause the most damage on. If that means a specific OS is targeted to do so, they will go for it. They won't waste their time on something that is used by barely anyone in the market at the time. However, should those other OS'es become more popular over the years, they will find themselves with more people attacking them. It's all about where the most damage can be caused...

[Mikal]

That 190,000 euros could have gone on type writers!

[Mario_Rinna]

That 190,000 euros could have gone on type writers!

Or brain surgery.