How a virus crashed Homeland Security

[mawilson 2,133]

A computer virus that infected computers connecting the Department of

Homeland Security's (DHS) US-VISIT border screening system last year

first passed through the backbone network of the US Immigrations and

Customs Enforcement bureau, according to documents obtained by Wired,

following a year long legal fight.

The papers - obtained under the Freedom of Information Act - highlight

the DHS's ineffective response to the attack. Rather than protecting 1,300

US-VISIT workstations as a priority, it concentrated on patching desktop

computers. The DHS resisted attempts to release documents on the crash,

as it turns out, more to avoid public embarrassment than out of concerns

sensitive information on its systems might be disclosed.

The Zotob worm used using a vulnerability in Windows 2000's Plug and Play

service to attack vulnerable machines. Microsoft released a patch for the

flaw on 9 August, but many organisations have failed to apply a fix before

Moroccan virus writers[*] released a worm on 13 August. The DHS delayed

patching US-VISIT workstations running Windows 2000 Professional over

concerns that more testing was needed because of the amount of peripherals

they supported and concentrated its efforts on patching desktop machines

even as reports began to flood in about widespread infection of US-VISIT

workstations.

The infection led to long queues at airports, as border controls processed

entrants manually or, in some cases, using backup computers. It took more

than a day to bring the problem under a semblance of control. By the early

hours of 19 August, a day after the outbreak flared up, 72 per cent of the

workstations were patched. But if the update was applied on workstations

at the same time it was applied to desktop PCs - 17 August - widespread

problems could have been avoided.

Wired has a full run-down of the outbreak, based on internal reports made

within the DHS before and after the incident, which serves as a case history

on mistakes to avoid in patch management and dealing with virus outbreaks.

[*] Moroccan Farid Essebar (AKA Diabl0) was jailed for perpetrating the Zotob

outrage back in September 2006. As well as the DHS other victims of the worm

included CNN, ABC, the Financial Times and the New York Times.

[Ban Hammer 13,342]

[*] Moroccan Farid Essebar (AKA Diabl0) was jailed for perpetrating the Zotob

outrage back in September 2006. As well as the DHS other victims of the worm

included CNN, ABC, the Financial Times and the New York Times.

bet he'll never get a k visa

[cmartyn 0]

Well, ya do have to test these patches. They can break applications. They especially tend to break web based applications. You would think they would have been able to test the patch and roll it in about 24 hours.. but then they would have to have in-house IT and not farmed out to India IT.

Notice how the NYT was affected and Not the NY Post who is also a big Windoze shop. :-) Thats cause we are vigilant.