Multiple media outlets are reporting the news that a suspected computer virus has led the city to shut down the entire municipal courts computer system (and has led HPD to suspend arrests for outstanding traffic warrants).
Here is an excerpt from Lee McGuire’s reporting for KHOU-11, which has been the most detailed so far:
Problems with city government computers first cropped up Wednesday morning at the Municipal Court building at 1400 Lubbock. Gwendolyn Goins, a spokesperson for the court system, said employees noticed the systems were slowing down and denying access to some files.
“On Thursday, the problem seemed to spread to other computers,” she said.
By Thursday night, city officials were scrambling to contain the damage from a computer virus they now suspect is the “Conficker” virus, the latest super virus to spread around the Web. Named after a German pun that means “program that manipulates the configuration,” Conficker infected nearly nine million computers worldwide last month.
Houston’s Information Technology Department authorized an emergency contract with an outside agency late Thursday to help stop the spread of the virus and repair infected computers at a cost of up to $25,000.
On Friday morning, Municipal Court workers had added extra shifts and were conducting court business with pens and paper. Goins said that while the system had slowed down, court business was still being conducted. “We don’t have any significant delays in the courtroom, but some courtrooms are a little bit busier than others simply because the docket is longer,” she said.
Defense attorneys disagreed. Two of them
