The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Infrastructure Protection Center issued an advisory Saturday to information technology system managers across the country warning of a virus-like program, which worked its way through the country’s Internet networks over the weekend.
The program was a type of programming known as a worm, and unlike other worms or viruses, it spread over internal network systems, not through infected e-mails.
A virus spreading over email can be stopped by telling e-mail users not to open suspicious e-mails, but this worm could only be dealt with by the actions of system managers.
Once one computer in a system became infected, it would send out probes into the system to find other susceptible computers. This action generates so much traffic that it chokes systems to the point where they shut down, blocking individual users’ access to networks and the Internet.
Because of the unique way it spreads, the worm caused the most problem for corporate networked systems.
The Philadelphia Inquirer was one of the organizations reporting serious network problems. Informational systems managers worked around the clock to return enough operations to print their Sunday edition.
“We were down early on Saturday,” said Rick Schwein, senior editor for the Inquirer’s publication systems. “I think the network guys were talking on the phone at six in the morning and we were all in at seven. We were able to get enough up and running so that our news room could still work on the publishing system.”
NIPC’s alert said the worm started to appear in systems around the world early Saturday morning at around 2:30 Central Standard Time, and is continuing to track the author of the worm.
Schwein said he had never experienced a computer bug, which brought systems down like this bug.
“We’ve never lost the network in that way. We went several hours without access once about three years ago,” Schwein said.
Schwein said systems managers could learn from the problems this attack caused, which have been almost completely reset over the weekend.
“Our lesson is that we’ll have to pay more attention to the software being used on the network,” Schwein said. He added that a lot of managers had thought a good firewall, which screens for rogue programs like worms, were sufficiently secured .
“I guess I was sort of naíve about how susceptible we were to it,” Schwein said.
The University of Wisconsin Department of Information Technologies experienced problems with the worm that affected the whole campus.
“I’m still trying to get online. No one in the hall can,” Laura Sitzberger said. Sitzberger is a freshman living in UW’s Sellery Residence Hall.
Sitzberger said she couldn’t check her email or use America Online’s Instant Messenger program.
“I just turned off my computer, because it was bothering me so much,” Sitzberger said.
The NIPC’s warning said they had not yet identified a malicious payload to the worm, only that it causes crippling congestion on systems.