The St John Ambulance service in New Zealand fell victim to a computer virus infection last week, according to media reports, which disabled its automated response systems across the country.

The service, which provides 90% of the emergency and non-emergency ambulance cover for the New Zealand population, was struck by a malware attack on Wednesday forcing staff to allocate ambulances manually according to Alan Goudge, communications operations manager for the St John Ambulance service:

"Anti-virus software protected the systems but as a result of the virus it impacted on some of the systems services, mainly those related to paging and radio. Back-up systems immediately took over when it was detected and the workload was managed manually."

No details appear to have been made available about which precise piece of malware infected the ambulance service's systems, or how it entered the network, but in all likelihood the attack was not targeted specifically at the organisation but simply included it amongst its victims.

Read more: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/11/14/ambulance-service-disrupted-by-computer-virus-infection