Information Security News: Internet Attacks Hit U.S. Attorneys' Offices

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50967-2003Aug26.html

John Mintz 
August 27, 2003

Justice Department officials said yesterday that a worm or virus has
dramatically slowed 15,000 computers at 300 U.S. attorneys' offices
around the country since Friday evening. Many of the computers
remained sluggish yesterday afternoon as Justice's technology staff
continued efforts to get the offices back online.

The bugs affected 40 percent of the federal prosecutors' desk and
laptop computers around the country, said Justice spokesman Mark
Corallo. "No security was compromised, and it had no effect on
evidence," he said. "It just slowed the network down."

Government computer-security officials spotted the problem about 7
p.m. Friday and then realized it had started slowing communications
about two hours earlier. All of the Washington area federal
prosecutors' offices were back to normal late yesterday, while most
office networks elsewhere remained slow-moving, officials said.

Officials declined to say how the computers were infected, or even
which computer bug, such as Blaster or Sobig, was responsible because
of "security concerns," Corallo said. "It's pretty maddening," he
added.



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