Baggage scanners at Bangkok airport paralyzed by computer virus
Suvarnabhumi airport in Thailand spent a lot of money to buy 26 GE CTX scanners to screen baggage; last night, 17 of them stopped working owing to a virus infection of the server
This is a problem with which the Thai authorities must cope, but there is an intimidation here of what might happen on these shores: Most of the luggage scanners at Suvarnabhumi airport broke down last night, paralyzing the conveyor belt system and forcing transport authorities to carry baggage manually. In all, seventeen computer tomography X-ray (CTX) machines had broken down at Suvarnabhumi airport about 8:00 pm. Suvarnabhumi airport is equipped with twenty-six CTX machines supplied by GE InVision. Some of the scanners had not been working since Tuesday.
Now, here is the problem: The scanners were paralyzed by a computer virus which infected the server. Airport authorities and GE technicians are now trying to identify the virus and see how it managed to infect the server. We note that last night’s breakdown was but the latest in what appears to be a long series of problems for the airport’s expensive, scandal-plagued CTX scanner system.
