03 May 2004
Sasser worm disrupts Taiwan's national post office, Sophos comments
 |
| The vulnerability exploited by the Sasser worm
has been described by Microsoft as critical |
Media reports from Taipei have confirmed that a third of the
offices of Taiwan's state-run post office have had their operations
seriously affected by the Sasser internet worm.
Some 1600 workstations, 300 of them in the greater Taipei area,
were hit by the virus today. According to an official the company
had to result to manual processes as their computer systems were
paralysed.
Local television coverage showed customers queuing in long lines
at many of the post offices, as service slowed down.
"Sasser has hit unprotected computers hard and fast," said
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "This
internet attack is a timely reminder for all businesses and
computer users to ensure their computers are properly secured and
protected."
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.
About Sophos
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.