Sircan

[ddm at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Sun, Aug 05, 2001 at 11:40:16PM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> That makes no sense. The World systems are all Unix(SGI). The Sircam virus 
> affects only Windows 9x (not even Windows NT or Windows 2000). 

Sure, but the vast majority of their clients are running windows 9x.
As those systems get infected, they'll send out mail to everyone in
the user's mailbox through their default SMTP server, which no doubt
is one of The World's SMTP gateway machines.  If enough of their
clients are infected, it essentially is the equivalent of launching a
DDoS against their mail servers, which explains this:

> The World did have a problem last week where we logged I/O errors
> trying to send email to World recipients.  All eventually were
> transmitted. 

In this way, the e-mail virus affects more than just the Windows
machines that it targets, and often takes down the e-mail server at
affected sites, effectively cutting off their electronic communication
with the rest of the Internet.  This is what makes it so damaging.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Derek Martin          |   Unix/Linux geek
ddm at pizzashack.org    |   GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D
Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu

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