Here's why some websites, including a .mil site I use, have been down. Nat ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- July 24, 2001 U.S. Pentagon Shuts Down Public Access to Web Sites Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Pentagon temporarily shut down public access to its Web sites Monday to make sure they are protected against a new computer threat known as the "Code Red" worm. "Most [Department of Defense] Web sites will not be accessible by the public until this worm no longer poses any threat to DOD networks," spokeswoman Lt. Col. Catherine Abbott said. Internet Virus 'Code Red' Misses Intended Target at White House (July 21) Virus-Like Software 'Code Red' Attacks White House Web Site (July 20) White House Web Site Is Attacked, Resulting in Massive Slowdowns (May 4) Pentagon computer security experts were instructed to install repair programs, commonly known as patches, to make their computers impenetrable to the worm before making the sites accessible again to the public. The sites remained visible to military personnel who accessed them from their work computers, Lt. Abbott said. Some Defense Web sites, such as the DefenseLink hub, (www.defenselink.mil) remained operational Monday evening. But others with the .mil address didn't respond. The worm, similar to a computer virus, has already infected at least 225,000 computers. It defaces Web sites with the words "Hacked by Chinese." It has spread more quickly than any worm in recent history. The White House took precautions against it Thursday evening, changing the numerical Internet address of its Web site (www.whitehouse.gov) to dodge the attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Infrastructure Protection Center issued a warning, calling the worm a significant threat that could "degrade services running on the Internet." Because Code Red spread so quickly, security companies haven't been able to figure out who wrote and released it. Code Red exploits a flaw discovered last month in Microsoft Corp. software used on Internet servers. While a software patch was made available to correct the flaw, many computers haven't been updated. Vulnerable computers are those running the server software with the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 operating system. Only computers set to use the English language will have their Web pages defaced. Since the worm surfaced, another variant has been found that doesn't deface Web pages but spreads even more quickly. Code Red also can damage smaller networks by affecting the Internet routers used for data-traffic control. Since the worm targets Internet servers, mostly used by businesses, few individual computer users have been affected. > > > > Perhaps they've had to turn it off due to hackers, equipment > > > reconfiguration, or some other reason. OTOH, that fire in the > tunnel in > > > Baltimore wiped out a large optic cable trunk that normally carries a > > > lot of internet traffic. Perhaps part of the 'net is down to repair > > > that. > > > > > > Jim >
