Millions of computers have already been infected by a new Internet computer worm that caused disruptions over the weekend and was expected to spread rapidly when businesses resumed work yesterday morning.
The worm, named Sasser, began to spread on Saturday, and unlike a virus does not travel through e-mails or attachments. It can spread by itself to any unprotected computer linked to the Internet.
It attacks through a flaw in recent versions of Microsoft's Windows -- Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP -- and causes the computer to shut down, then rebooting it, repeating the process several times. But it appears to do no lasting damage.
The anti-virus company Panda Software said Sunday slightly more than 3 percent of the world's computers, around 18 million out of the estimated 600 million operating worldwide, were infected.
"Compared to other viruses which have appeared on weekends when activity is low -- doubly so now that May 1 is a holiday in many countries -- this one has positioned itself as one of the quickest-spreading and most virulent ones," Luis Corrons of PandaLabs, which has offices in Spain and the US, said on Sunday.
"All these signs make for a dark forecast for the beginning of the week when it is expected that the number of incidents will soar at the beginning of the work day."
"The problem seems to be getting worse," Mikko Hyppoenen, an anti-virus expert at F-Secure, a leading Internet security firm, said from Helsinki, adding that millions of computers worldwide may have been infected.
"We don't know how big this is going to be [but] we expect things to get much worse on Monday when people bring their laptops in to the office after the weekend," Hyppoenen said.
Since laptops are not protected by company firewall systems if used on a server other than the company's, they run the risk of being infected and in turn infect the company's network when used in the office.
"It seems to me an exaggeration to say that millions of computers have been affected," Bernard Ourghanlian, Microsoft's technical director in France, told AFP, where work was disrupted by the worm Saturday night.
But he acknowledged that the worm was spreading Sunday.
"We are recording at the moment several attacks a minute on `honey pots' [computers deliberately left unprotected so they can monitor viruses]," he said, adding that France and some Asian countries seemed to be particularly hit.
Microsoft made available a software update last month to fix the flaw exploited by the worm.
"We have every hope the spreading of this virus will be limited by the many precautions we have taken," he said.
"It is not possible to give a figure for the spread of the virus, still less the cost of the damage it will do," he said, adding that many firms never admit being infected and that if small and medium-sized businesses did not take precautions on Monday morning Sasser could spread rapidly.
In Moscow the Russian computer security firm Kaspersky Labs warned of a possible major epidemic when business activity resumes Monday.
"For the moment the extent of the epidemic isn't that severe only because most people are not at work" and their computers are shut off, Denis Zenkin said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique