see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/technology/27virus.html
The sophistocation of this virus according to computer experts points to Govt creation and this case the evidence is pointing to Israel.The virus has proliferated mainly in the Iranian nuclear facilities,but now is spreading around the planet.It has the capacity to not only seriously disrupt our basic services such as water,power etc but also our defence systems.It can mutate into a different identity and can lay dormant in our computers until an activation code is sent from a central authority.

This sort of highly sophistocated Govt generated virus has the potential for total chaos in our society.eg How do the Banks back up their systems? Do they keep hard copies or just another digital copy prone to virus attack?

I back up on a separate hard drive but if it is also infected,then data gets destroyed.

Perhaps we should all do daily print outs of our bank accounts,since it seems that a total system collapse is possible.

"Perhaps we should all do daily print outs of our bank accounts,since it seems that a total system collapse is possible."

Arjay 'is possible' is a rather broad term. Allow me to demonstrate:

-Perhaps I should consider moving to Madagascar, since it seems that a volcano emerging under my house 'is possible'.

-Perhaps we should ban rubber bands, since it seems that a terrorist attack using rubber bands to aim for our eyes 'is possible'.

-Perhaps we should run screaming for the hills, since an uprising of household appliances led by the suspiciously che-gueverra-like-toaster sitting on my countertop 'is possible'.

Nice conspiracy theory. I prefer my conspiracy theories to have freemasons though. I'm a traditionalist.

Yes Arjay, perhaps you should rethink your sentence structure.

Obviously "is possible" is so broad indeed that it is not free from an over-analytical retort that produces nothing but a mocking useless contribution to a relevant thread, as the post above me demonstrates.

I wouldn't think it at all unlikely that a viral attack is already underway, a total system crash resulting in complete chaos is definitely possible.
Not many people in the scheme of things are that computer savvy, a lot of people will lose a lot of data.

I bet TRTL has not even read the article.This is not in the realm of fantacy.If they can get into the systems of a nuclear reactor then banks can be just as easy.Bank internet fraud is a common occurence but banks don't like to advertise the down side.

Nicnoto,what is needed is a back up system that cannot be altered no matter what virus attacks it.ie updates can only be done via a physical imput by the user eg a physical switch which cannot be compromised.

Pfft- I don't see how this is a conspiracy- governments try to hack each other's systems all the time, and I wouldn't put it past a few to make a few viruses.

Of course, most likely (despite conspiracies) governments and corporations don't bother- simple reason is there are PLENTY of people willing to do it for free, and will be quite happy to target such things without intervention.

Not to say such bodies will not try to find these people and, upon locating them, ask them if they'd like a job with them;

Most of the best hackers in the world end up working for governments- that's why many government and high-level corporate systems are so secure and hard to break.

Excellent Post Arjay, and is it true that Israel generated this virus. That is the interesting question. Or was it the US ?.

If so, you would have to worry about a Gov't indulging in cyber crime and particularly cyber crime that ultimately ends up out of control and around the planet.

I'm a mac user, would this also be true of Mac's.

The other aspect that pricked my ears is that, the virus can remain dormant, and be activated from a central location.

If so it becomes clear that that location needs to be identified and promptly and the perpetrators identified and punished accordingly.