http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34054 By Paul Sperry August 12, 2003 WASHINGTON -- The computer system used by U.S. immigration and customs officers to check terrorist watchlists has been on the blink for much of the past week, and technicians dispatched by the Homeland Security Department cannot seem to diagnose the problem, let alone fix it, WorldNetDaily has learned. Some 40 ports of entry across the country have reported chronic delays in accessing law enforcement data and even 24-hour system outages, officials say. "A virus may have migrated to our system," said one official. Indeed, the department has distributed a virus alert to port directors. A fast-spreading virus -- dubbed the MSBlast, or LovSan, worm -- has infected other government agencies, including some Federal Reserve banks. Federal immigration officers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the nation's busiest, say delays in the TECS lookout database is causing passport-processing bottlenecks and long lines at international terminals. "People are backed up all the way down the terminal," a supervisor there said. "It's just a mess." U.S. authorities at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport say their database went down for 24 hours a week ago, and delays in calling up data persist. Homeland Security spokesman James Michie said he's aware of complaints about "sluggishness" in the computer system, but he knew of no other details about the problem. "I understand there has been some sluggishness in recent days with some databases," he confirmed in an interview with WorldNetDaily. The back-up system for TECS, known by the acronym PALS, isn't much help, officers say, because it relies on old data. It's updated by CD every couple of months. Washington is baffled by the computer glitch, officials say. "The tech honchos from D.C. can't figure it out," one said. "It's weird," said another. Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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