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November 16, 2009

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Lawmakers’ computers hit by a porn virus

Friday, May 11, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A porn virus attacked hundreds of computers in the Legislature, closing down the e-mail system for nearly 21 hours this week.

"It wasn't a destructive virus, and it didn't eat the hard drives," said Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

Assemblyman Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, is being ribbed by fellow lawmakers as the one who allowed the virus to infect the system.

Nolan said Thursday he saw a message from a Las Vegas engineering associate in his e-mail. He opened it and the attachment.

"The computer froze, the screen started flashing and it started firing pornographic pictures," Nolan said.

He said he closed the computer within 10 seconds. But the virus was on its way to all of the people on Nolan's e-mail list. And other lawmakers acknowledged they opened up the message from Nolan, only to be greeted by the porn pictures.

Once they opened it, the virus spread to those on their mailing lists.

"It was a nasty virus," Nolan said.

Malkiewich said, "I'm sure we will get complaints." And his staff is trying to figure how to stop a repeat in the future.

Nolan said he has contacted the legal staff in the Legislature to talk to the attorney general's office about tracking down the person who gave birth to the virus. "It cost us thousands of dollars in down time," he said.

Malkiewich said the system was shut down at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday and was "cleaned out." It was restored at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Hundreds of e-mails are sent to legislators every day and those were lost, Malkiewich said.

Malkiewich said the virus didn't originate with the engineering associate of Nolan's in Las Vegas. It was probably transmitted to his computer from somewhere else. And it would take a lot of time to track down the originator.

Nolan said his Las Vegas associate "got it from an engineering associate in California."

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