Computer worm hits computers a 2d day

The Blaster virus, a computer worm that Tuesday infected more than 10,000 computers in Korea, continued to rampage here yesterday. The Ministry of Information and Communication said it received about 4,000 infection reports between midnight and 5 p.m. yesterday, compared to 2,500 reports on Tuesday. Hauri Inc., a software anti-virus firm, said that its virus vaccine for the worm has been downloaded more than 80,000 times since Tuesday. “We assume tens of thousands of computers are infected.” Once the Blaster worm virus gets into a computer, it scans the Internet for other vulnerable computers and attacks them. The virus will also repeatedly restart computers running some versions of Windows, although its main targets are Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Non-Microsoft operating systems are not affected. To prevent infection, patch programs are recommended for download from www.microsoft .com/korea/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-026.asp. If the infected computer continues to shut itself down, disconnect it from any network connection and follow the instructions in the patch. Most leading anti-virus software makers have developed virus signatures for the worm and most will remove it from an infected computer. Microsoft released the patch for the worm last month. by Kwon Hyeok-joo