An attack by the Code Red computer worm prompted Oceanic Cable to advise subscribers of its Road Runner high-speed Internet service to download any necessary software patches to guard against the spread of the virus. Code Red worm
prompts alerts from
isle ISPs6 Road Runner users were infected
by the worm, Oceanic saysBy B.J. Reyes
breyes@starbulletin.comA test of its network Monday night showed that six of Road Runner's roughly 60,000 subscribers had been infected by the worm, said Kit Beuret, an Oceanic Cable spokesman and computer security officer.
"Those people were immediately contacted on the phone and we got them to shut off ... and shut off the flood of Code Red," Beuret said.
An e-mail sent yesterday to Road Runner subscribers warned that "it is possible that the virus has infected the PCs of Road Runner's subscribers using the Microsoft Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system. Infected PCs may continue to flood the Internet and Road Runner's network with virus-generated messages (even without your being aware of it)."
Verizon Hawaii, which provides dial-up and high-speed DSL Internet service, posted virus warnings on its home page for subscribers and so far had not seen much activity by the worms on its network, spokeswoman Ann Nishida said.
"We haven't really had a huge problem with it," she said. "I think a lot of people were aware of it and installed those patches last week."
The Code Red worm, and a more virulent strain known as Code Red II, affect only PC users running Windows NT and Windows 2000, along with Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) Web software.
"(IIS) is something that an Internet developer might have or use," Beuret said, adding that the six affected Road Runner subscribers were residential customers "who were involved in designing Web pages for people."
The worms surreptitiously spread through a hole in the IIS software running on Windows NT or 2000 machines.
Aside from defacing Web pages, the worm also can cause denial-of-service attacks, shutting off users from accessing a site. In the case of Code Red II, the self-propagating code also installs a "back door" on infected computers, leaving them vulnerable to future hacking.
Computer users can protect themselves by downloading a software patch from the Microsoft Web site.
Although advance warning helped slow the spread of the worms, the financial damage caused by the malicious programs was rising by the day, experts said yesterday.
The economic cost of both worms has risen to near $2 billion, up from an estimated $1.2 billion as of a week earlier, according to Computer Economics, of Carlsbad, Calif., which tracks the damage caused by computer viruses.
Reuters news service contributed to this article.