Nimda strikes U.K. broadband users
BT says that two of its Exchanges may have been hit by the Nimda virus, cutting off U.K.
broadband users.
Users of BT's ADSL broadband service suffered severe connectivity problems on Wednesday when
equipment at two exchanges was hit by what the company believes was the Nimda worm.
A recorded message on the company's helpline told callers that it was experiencing problems, with users
having trouble connecting to the Internet. The message said this could be "due to the recent outbreak of the
Nimda virus."
Both the Whitefield and the London Lodge Hill exchanges were affected. The Nimda virus first surfaced on
Tuesday, and has been blamed for causing disruption to the Internet.
The Nimda worm uses several methods to propagate itself, including email attachments and IRC, but it's most worrying
property is a Code Red-like ability to exploit known weaknesses in Microsoft's IIS Web server software.The Nimda virus -- its full
name is W32/Nimda.A-mm -- was first detected on Tuesday afternoon.
Messagelabs, which provides an email
scanning service for its corporate customers, said it stopped more than 100 copies of the virus attached to emails within
an hour of the first incident, which arrived from Korea at 13.10GMT. Most of the
Nimda email viruses captured on Tuesday afternoon by Messagelabs originated from
the US, leading the company to speculate that this is where the virus originates from.
BT was not available for comment at the time of going to press.
