Technology Ministry says virus attack on gov't systems contained

State Minister in the Technology Ministry, Julian Robinson, says there has been no damage to infrastructure or fallout as a result of a virus attack on government agencies.

Robinson says at least three agencies received the malicious email.

He says the technology ministry was made aware of the issue on Wednesday and it quickly advised all Government Management Information Systems officers of the problem.

The state minister says remedial action was taken and the virus was contained and neutralised.

Noting the increase in cyber threats and attacks in recent times, Robison says the issue of malicious email will be an ongoing one.

He says the government has taken steps to increase the cyber security of its infrastructure and he is appealing to Jamaicans to do the same.

Meanwhile, Robison is urging the public not to open any emails with the subject line 'Problem with invoices' and a zip file attachment with the name 'new.zip'.

He says upon opening the zip file, it will appear to contain a PDF document but the document poses a threat to the machine or network. 

The state minister is urging the public to exercise caution when opening emails, especially from unfamiliar senders.