New computer worm Sasser shuts down Sampo bank branches

Thousands of computers affected

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The Sasser worm, which was first detected on the morning of May 1st, has already infected thousands of Finnish computers both at homes and offices.
      The Sampo Bank shut down all its 130 branches on Monday morning because of the worm. The branches were closed for several hours, but were all open by the afternoon.
      "The updates to virus protection were not carried out in time, so all the computers in branches had to be taken offline as a security precaution", explained Hannu Vuola, the head of Sampo's group communications.
      The corporate and internet banking services of Sampo functioned normally throughout the day, as did ATMs. According to Vuola, the worm did not compromise money transfers or the privacy of customers.
     
Property and casualty insurance company If was also affected by the worm on Monday. In Sweden, the company's internal telephone and telecommunications connections did not function properly, and in Finland, the internal network was partially shut down for an hour as a precautionary measure.
      Anja Talasmo, If's press contact in Finland, said that the worm did not trouble customer service or the company's website.
      The Sasser worm resembles the Blaster virus, which caused the Nordea Bank to shut dozens of its branches last August, and affected flights and train traffic.
      Lauri Peltola, in charge of communications at Nordea, commented that that the bank learned in August that no system is absolutely fool-proof. Nordea's information systems are updated constantly by a team of twenty.
     
Mobile operator TeliaSonera discovered a few infected computers in an internal check on Monday. Jarmo Koski, in charge of the company's network security, commented that TeliaSonera paid special attention to information security last year due to the flood of viruses. The company was pleasantly surprised that Sasser caused so few problems.
      Many other corporations have tightened their virus protection measures after last fall as well, so Sasser is expected to cause less damage than the worms that spread last year.
      Mikko Hyppönen, the Director of Anti-Virus Research at F-Secure, believes that Sasser will not wreak as much havoc as Blaster, which spread to millions of computers worldwide. However, Hyppönen warns that the worm will continue to spread for the duration of this week.
      Globally, Sasser has infected hundreds of thousands of computers. It has stopped train traffic in Australia, and some Delta Airlines flights in the United States. Investment bank Goldman Sachs has also reported infections.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Computer virus closes dozens of Nordea bank branches (15.8.2003)

Links:
  F-Secure: Sasser worm

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