How often do you check your computer for virus infection and have you ensured your anti-virus software is up to  date?

Today the "world renowned" London hospital – St Bartholomew’s (Barts) in the City, was brought to a standstill after a computer virus infected the network and technicians were forced to shutdown the network for immediate disinfection.

In today's IT world this resulted in medical staff resorting to a now ancient technology to cope, pen and paper.

Although the hospital was able to keep it's operating theatres open all emergency service ambulances to the A&E (Accident and Emergency) department were diverted to nearby hospitals.

According to Graham Cluley of Sophos, the anti-virus experts

The infection at Barts and London Trust was reportedly caused by the Mytob worm, which contains built-in spyware functionality. Mytob spreads by email and has the ability to plant backdoor software on compromised Windows PCs.

It does make you question the IT infrastrucutre and data security procedures of a major holder of confidential information. If you can't trust your doctor to keep your information secret who can you trust?