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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, August 22, 2003

Virus annoys local e-mailers

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

On the Web:

For protection against computer viruses, check these sites

The CERT Coordination Center: www.cert.org

Microsoft Corp.: www.microsoft.com

Symantec Corp.: www.symantec.com

McAfee Security: www.mcafee.com
The latest incarnation of the Sobig computer virus continued to live up to its name yesterday as it bombarded e-mail boxes statewide and across the nation.

Like its predecessors, Sobig.F replicates itself by sending out infected e-mail and can compromise confidential information on computers running the Windows operating system. Coming on the heels of last week's Blaster virus, Sobig has become the fastest-spreading computer virus to date.

At Hawai'i Pacific University, faculty and staff were communicating via faxes after e-mail services were shutdown and some Internet-based phones were out yesterday. E-mail service was expected to be restored today and the outage didn't affect the ability of students to enroll for classes, said Nancy Ellis, vice president of student support services at HPU.

"When you don't have e-mail, it's a pain, but it's not like you can't get business done," she said.

Among local organizations dealing with computer viruses this week:

• The University of Hawai'i said e-mail filters blocked a peak of about 80,000 infected e-mails Tuesday or about 25 percent of all such traffic, however the virus wasn't affecting operations, said David Lassner, UH chief information officer.

• Ho'ala Greevy, who filters e-mail for about 30 companies at Pau Spam, said the Honolulu-based company was intercepting 3,000 Sobig e-mails a day.

"It hasn't slowed down any," he said.

• Queen's Medical Center also said it ran into computer problems because of a possible computer virus, though the problem wasn't affecting patient care.

• And Oceanic Time Warner Cable was advising customers to update anti-virus software and operating systems to stave off infection from the unprecedented spread of Sobig.

"This one is pretty invasive," said Norman Santos, vice president for Oceanic's operations. "If you don't have your own anti-virus software on your computer, you're probably going to get hit."

The provider of RoadRunner high-speed Internet service said the two recent virus outbreaks weren't responsible for recent intermittent e-mail problems, which were a result of equipment upgrades.

While widespread, the economic impact of Sobig is likely to pale in comparison to the so called "Love Bug" virus of 2000, which cost businesses worldwide $8.7 billion in lost sales, labor and equipment costs, according to research firm Computer Economics in Carlsbad, Calif.

The damage from Sobig and Blaster is expected to be about $1.5 billion, said Mark McManus, vice president of technology transfer for Computer Economics.

"The Love Bug took down entire companies and kept them down for a period of time," he said. "That isn't happening this time."

Sobig, Blaster and other incidents of increased virus activity come as virus programmers and hackers become better at exploiting weaknesses in increasingly complex software. During the first six months of this year, there were 76,404 incidents of viruses and hacking reported to government Internet monitor the CERT Coordination Center, compared with 82,094 incidents reported for all of last year.

Despite a steady increase in virus activity the economic impact of computer viruses has declined over time since peaking at $17.6 billion worldwide in 2000. Last year computer viruses caused an estimated $11.1 billion in damage, according to Computer Economics, which said that figure could grow this year.

"Part of the reason (damages have declined) is the tools we have to combat viruses are better than they were two or three years ago," McManus said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.