WASHINGTON, Jan 26: Countries all over the globe Sunday surveyed the damage from the most serious attack on the Internet in more than a year, with some networks still down and security experts fearing that the hit was but a prelude to a larger cyber-assault.
Although online service returned to normal shortly before midnight on Saturday in South Korea — where the worm caused high-speed networks to crash in a worst-ever telecommunication breakdown — many Internet users still complained about slow traffic Sunday.
The day before, a fast-spreading “slammer” attack stranded millions of online computer users, knocked out bank machines across the United States and appeared to have hit hardest in Asia.
In South Korea, the worm paralyzed transactions across Internet shopping malls and online banking services.
In China and Taiwan, computer experts said clients also have reported major networking problems.
In Japan, damage was limited to some schools and companies, but security experts feared problems could spread Monday, when workweek resumes.
On Sunday, South Korea’s Information and Communication Minister Lee Sang-Chul apologized for what he called “the total Internet breakdown” after emergency talks with state and private network experts.
He warned that matters could get even worse if the slammer worm, or more malignant variants, disrupt networks Monday, when businesses return to work.
“We cannot rule out a second attack by the worm tomorrow. Both the public and firms are required to follow our guidelines,” Lee told reporters.
By late Saturday, the slammer bug affected nearly 250,000 computers worldwide, said Vincent Gulloto, vice president of MacAfee Avert Labs and leader of Network Associates’ Antivirus Response Team.
The attack focused on Microsoft’s popular database software “SQL Server 2000” and struck in the United States at around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday.
Slammer is considered a computer worm, which unlike a computer virus does not require a user to open an e-mail attachment or initiate any other type of command to infect the computer. It carries a self-regenerating mechanism that enables it to multiply quickly across the Web and triggers a huge volume of transmissions to flow into computer systems.
The cyber-attack prevented most Bank of America customers from withdrawing money from the company’s 13,000 ATM machines.—AFP
