Microsoft Virus Attacks SBC Communications, CNN, ABC Computers

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- A computer virus targeting Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software shut down machines at Time Warner Inc.'s Cable News Network and SBC Communications Inc., and may spread globally, according to antivirus software companies.

The destructive program is a strain of an existing virus known as Zotob affecting computers running the Windows 2000 operating system, according to Stephen Toulouse, security program manager at Microsoft. Trend Micro Inc., Japan's biggest antivirus software maker, and Symantec Corp., the world's biggest, raised their risk ratings on the virus.

``We are not aware at this time of a new attack. Our analysis has revealed that the reported worms are different variations of the existing attack called Zotob,'' Microsoft's Toulouse wrote in an e-mailed statement. He said customers who had updated their software or are using other operating system versions such as Windows XP, weren't affected by the virus.

Microsoft, whose Windows runs almost 95 percent of the world's personal computers, said the virus takes advantage of a flaw that it disclosed on Aug. 9 along with a software update to fix it. The time between the disclosure of a flaw and the creation of a virus to exploit the fault has been decreasing from months to days over the last four years.

``There is a potential for additional infection outside of the U.S., because any Windows 2000 system than hasn't been patched yet is vulnerable,'' said Joe Hartmann, a researcher for Trend Micro in Tokyo.

Newsrooms

CNN spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said there were computer failures in Atlanta and New York. ABC Inc., a division of Walt Disney Co., had computers on the East and West coasts affected, spokesman Jeff Schneider said yesterday. He also couldn't identify the worm or virus.

CNN computers in New York and Atlanta were hit at about 5 p.m. New York time and forced the network to alter its programming schedule. ``The Situation Room'' show hosted by Wolf Blitzer ran for 90 minutes until 6:30 p.m. New York time, taking half an hour from ``Lou Dobbs Tonight,'' Goldberg said. ``Things are now back on schedule.''

Some internal computers were impacted at call centers forcing employees to manually enter orders, said Michael Coe, a spokesman for SBC Communications, the No. 2 U.S. telephone company based in San Antonio, Texas. SBC's data and voice services were not affected and the computers were patched and cleaned to be return to service within hours, he said.

Risk Ratings

Trend Micro raised the alert level on the virus to ``medium'' from ``low,'' the highest level since March 7, according to the company's Web site. Symantec, based in Cupertino, California, increased its rating on Zotob and its variants to ``3'' from ``2'' on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst.

Shares of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft fell 1.4 percent to $26.74 at the close on the Nasdaq Stock Market, and rose 0.2 percent in after-hours trading. Trend Micro's stock rose 1.8 percent to 3,880 yen, after gaining as much as 3.7 percent, as of 2:17 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

McAfee Inc., the No. 2 maker of security software, rates Zotob as ``high risk,'' the highest of three McAfee risk-levels ratings, according to Vinny Gullotto, a vice president at McAfee AVERT.

Gullotto said the attacking programs make it possible to remotely take over computers and delete data or use them for other purposes such as so-called denial of service attacks, whereby computers that run websites are bombarded with bogus requests that make them fail.

Computers at the New York Times Co., the third-largest newspaper publisher, were also hit.

``Our computers are fine at the moment,'' said Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for the company. ``We don't expect it to affect production of the paper.''

Flaw

Microsoft said a patch for the security hole is available at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS05-039.mspx

Microsoft has been working for two years to boost the security of its Windows operating system, training engineers to avoid common flaws and holding off development of its next Windows to release a security overhaul to 2001's Windows XP in August 2004.

The company last month released a test version of its next Windows that aims to further improve the products' resistance to computer viruses.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma Moody at emoody@bloomberg.net.