[ISN] Early bird avoids the worm

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 01:19:34 PDT

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    Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkat_private>
    
    http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0811/web-worm-08-12-03.asp
    
    By Diane Frank 
    Aug. 12, 2003
    
    The Internet worm affecting computers nationwide today has had very 
    little impact on federal agencies because most of them applied the 
    patch for the vulnerability last month when the Homeland Security 
    Department's National Cyber Security Division first issued the alert, 
    officials said.
    
    The Blaster worm, also known as Lovesan, has been spreading rapidly 
    this week. It takes advantage of a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s 
    Windows operating system that was discovered in July. The 
    cybersecurity division, through the Federal Computer Incident Response 
    Center (FedCIRC), warned of the vulnerability July 17 and provided 
    information on Microsoft's patch for it.
    
    "Our patch rates were quite good, as evidenced by the fact that today 
    we've had only sporadic reports of impact at federal agencies," said 
    David Wray, a spokesman for the department. "We appear to have done 
    our job."
    
    FedCIRC, which has long pushed to get agency officials to report on 
    the application of patches, has a patch evaluation and dissemination 
    service that lets federal systems administrators get information only 
    on patches that are relevant to their networks. That effort appears to 
    be paying off, Wray said.
    
    The cybersecurity division includes the staff and responsibilities of 
    the National Infrastructure Protection Center, and is responsible for 
    information security analysis of federal agencies and the critical 
    infrastructure of the entire country. The private sector, such as the 
    Internet service providers, oversees much of that infrastructure, but 
    the division keeps in close contact with those companies to monitor 
    the worm, Wray said. 
    
    
    
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