Virus gobbled exam results

Students in West Bengal have received wrong examination marks because of a computer virus.

The West Bengal education minister, Kanti Biswas, claims that a worm caused mistakes on mark sheets.

According to Sophos, Biswas said that an unnamed virus attacked computer systems in schools and changed the examination marks.

Biswas blamed the virus for 19 separate cases of irregularities in examination marks in west Bengal.

Earlier this year, viruses were blamed for disrupting the counting of votes in a US election and for breaching the network of a Norwegian government data security agency.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos Anti-Virus, said: "Saying 'a virus ate my exam results' is no excuse. No computer is immune from virus attack so all users should take steps to ensure their PCs are protected against the latest viruses."