Blaster blows hole in nation's defenses

A new computer virus that exploits security holes in Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system has attacked over 1,000 companies in Taiwan over past two days, an anti-virus expert said yesterday.

"The `Blaster' worm has since Tuesday affected more than 50,000 computers, including 40,000 computers today, and clogged Internet networks," said Ann Teng (鄧安安), an associate manager of Trend Micro Inc. Teng said the worm spread rapidly in Taiwan late Tuesday, with peak activity occurring by 3pm yesterday.

"The spread of the worm started to slow after 5pm and we expect the situation will be get better by today," she said.

Trend Micro issued the highest virus alert of its five-level virus warnings against the `Blaster,' while the US anti-virus company Symantec offered its highest alert out of its four-level warning against the worm.

Several technology product manufacturers based in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park and some Internet content producers were hit by the virus, Teng said.

Colleges National Chaio Tung University, National Tsinghua University, as well as the government-funded think-tank, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, also reported having problems caused by the worm.