Campus Affected by Internet Worm

Author: Nicolas Emery

Those of us at Middlebury College who have become accustomed to the high-speed Internet connection we enjoy here may have been disappointed in recent days by a noticeably slower connection speed.
This decrease has been caused by an Internet "worm" which struck thousands of computers Saturday, causing widespread disruptions in business in the United States and Europe by Monday morning when computers were started up again after the weekend.
Dubbed the "Slammer" worm, security firms estimate that it is the worst act of Internet sabotage in 18 months.
A worm is a software program that infiltrates a computer and replicates itself, redistributing itself to other computers using e-mail or other transport mechanisms.
The Internet then becomes clogged with the worm and its replications, slowing efficiency.
The Slammer worm in particular works by seeking computers running Microsoft's SQL Server database software, which has a known vulnerability.
According to Director of Network Design and Operations Howie McCausland, the College network has not been affected in any way by the worm.
While the network itself has not been affected, McCausland reports that "our path to the rest of the Internet is being clogged."
Approximately 25 percent of the College's bandwidth has been cut off because of the clogged Internet.
Microsoft knew of the vulnerability in its software and issued a patch for it six months ago, but many businesses had not updated their computers with the patch when the worm struck.
McCausland emphasized that "this worm is very prolific in its propogation," meaning that tracking the creators of this worm will be nearly impossible.
Within the first minute of the attack thousands of computers were affected.
Bank cash machines have been particularly affected by the worm, which rendered them incapable of dispensing cash.
"The effects of the worm will diminish steadily over the next few days," said McCausland.