 |
| Coastguards in the UK have been hit by the Sasser
worm |
According to media reports, the Sasser worm has struck UK's
entire network of coastguard control rooms.
The Sasser worm is
said to have hit all 19 of the coastguard control centres around
the UK and the service's headquarters, bringing IT systems to a
halt and forcing officers to resort to pen and paper.
According to Joanne Groenenberg, a spokeswoman of the Maritime
and Coastguard Agency (MCA), the public have not been endangered,
but computer mapping facilities are not working and staff are
having to use paper maps.
Command and control systems, and lifesaving equipment, are said
to be unaffected by the worm, which infects unprotected computers
via the internet.
Liverpool coastguard, which provides rescue services across much
of Britain's west coast from Colwyn Bay to Mull of Kintyre, said
the worm was causing major operational problems.
"Anyone who thinks viruses are childish pranks which do no real
harm should bear the UK Coastguard's experiences in mind," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "The day is
long overdue when virus writers grew up and realised the very real
harm they can cause by distributing their viruses. The Sasser worm
is causing criminal damage around the world - and the perpetrators
deserve to be punished."
The MCA's Coastguard Rescue Co-ordination Centres operate around
the clock and use the latest communications technology to respond
to any incidents at the coast or at sea.
The security vulnerability exploited by the Sasser worm was
first patched by Microsoft on 13 April 2004 in Microsoft Security
Bulletin MS04-011.
Sophos recommends that every IT manager responsible for security
should consider subscribing to vulnerability mailing lists such as
that operated by Microsoft at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/notify.mspx
.
Home users of Microsoft Windows can visit windowsupdate.microsoft.com to have their
systems scanned for critical Microsoft security
vulnerabilities.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.