wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] PC(USA) computers infested by 'worms'

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8845 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05420
August 18, 2005

PC(USA) computers infested by 'worms'

Staff 'exterminators' cleaning up 650 machines at Louisville headquarters

by Toya Richards Hill

LOUISVILLE - Email communication to and from the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.)'s main office here was interrupted Tuesday - and was still down
Thursday afternoon - because of an infestation of digital "worms."

	The same computer worms that hit offices everywhere from Capitol Hill
in Washington, DC, to CNN in New York and Atlanta also hit the PC(USA).
Similar problems reportedly disabled computers outside the United States,
including some in Germany and Asia.

	Staff of the PC(USA) Office of Information Services (OIS) were
working urgently to make the computer system safe again.

	"We've had to assume that every computer was infected, so we're
scanning and servicing each one of our approximately 650 computers," said
Beth Basham, OIS associate director. "That process is taking, on average,
about 30 to 40 minutes per computer."

	"So far, we think about one-third of our computers were indeed
infected," she said Wednesday afternoon. 

	The worms - dubbed "Zotob" and "Rbot" - exploit vulnerabilities in
some Microsoft Windows computers, according to the New York Times.

	Basham said the worms entered the PC(USA) system through its email
system, GroupWise, by way of "an attachment that was a (Microsoft) Word
document."

	OIS noticed problems in the system about 10 a.m. Tuesday; by about 8
minutes after the hour, the infection had taken hold, affecting computers in
a variety of ways. "It acted very quickly," Basham said.

	OIS is downloading "patches" provided by Microsoft onto each computer
in the building to correct the problem.

	"We hope that we cam have everybody up on GroupWise by tomorrow,
mid-afternoon, at the latest," Basham said Wednesday.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org