Slashdot Mirror
Virus Knocks Out U.S. Visa Approval System
GillBates0 writes "According to this story and many others, the State Department's electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government unable to issue visas. The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains, among others, names of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists. It was unclear which computer virus might have affected the system. But a separate message sent to embassies and consular offices late Tuesday warned that the Welchia virus had been detected in one facility. Welchia is an aggressive infection unleashed last month that exploits a software flaw in recent versions of Microsoft Windows."
So now even terrorists using a fake name won't be able to get into the US!
READY.
#
Seems like there's a Mastercard joke in here somewhere.
And here I was thinking about all the new "Already approved VISA platinum card!" in my inbox...
Not being able to check every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history...
...priceless
Don't be silly. If the DoS read /., everything would be running on OpenBSD and MySQL.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I think your post needs more cliches to be successfully moderated up.
Won't someone think of the children?
From the parent comment: "... Microsoft keeps making, er, crappy software
I just want to say that I appreciate the tactfulness, sensitivity, restraint, and diplomacy of that remark.
Because remember, if you use Windows, the terrorists have already won. (its a feature, not a bug)
make that 78,001 suspected terrorists! questioning how the government decides who is a terrorist makes you an obvious potential terrorist!
<soup="nazi"> NO VISA FOR YOU!!! </soup>
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
4.) vi is better than e-macs
5.) In Soviet Russia, you attack Virus!
6.) People should patch their boxes bec.#J^@ATDT[NO CARRIER]
7.) Don't use FreeBSD because it's dead/dying.
8.) Apple is awesome. But I can't afford one.
9.) Imagine a Beowolf cluster of those!
10.) Patents, RIAA, Spooks, Windoze, Verisign, Politician, Spalling Checkirs; all bad.
11.) Ogg, Apple, *nix, RMS, EFF; all good.
12.) ???
13.) Profit!
PS. Mod's, go away. I'm just having fun. Don't put it up or down you fu%#d2DHATDT[NO CARRIER]
How? They just do a grep for names without vowels.
What? They cracked the slashdot users file?
You read it wrong.
Its only 78.
The computer added the precision on so if the terrorists blow themselves up they can count the pieces.
The reality is though, that "1 in 7" users have problems with the power button.
I once worked for an engineer who was very fond of quoting that, by definition, 50% of the population has an IQ below 100.
What part of "shall not be infringed" is so hard to understand?
There's probably a joke here. Anyone know where?
http://www.switch2firefox.com/
You forgot to mention SCO :)
You forgot: .........
14) Hot grits!
15) Smoking crack for 699$
16) It's thursday, who do we hate today?
17) Imagine the implications for the pr0n industry!
18) Don't forget insensitive clod, you insensitive clod!
19) You can mod me down if you want, but....
20) And for the math impared...... 1.6miles = 1km
21) Slashdotted? Here's the google mirror.
22) But does it run linux?
^_^
How on earth does the government come up with a list of _78,000_ suspected terrorists? This is the type of indiscriminant prejudice that a seige mentality creates.
Ohp - now it's 78,001.
Sheesh, I heard about this on The Truckin' Bozo show last nite. When a truck driving show beats Slashdot to the news, it's the dawn of a new age.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
If they can't patch windows, you expect them to grep things?
Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.
Where do I pick up my prize? Do I have to say a speech?
And, as long as this has no bearing on the judges decision, I am most definitely not claiming equivalancy, but rather responding to the ever-present troll which claims that linux is a drop-in security solve-all.
I once worked for an engineer who was very fond of quoting that, by definition, 50% of the population has an IQ below 100.
What an amazing prediction of the 2000 Presidential election!
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
I for one welcome our SCO overl.. nevermind.
Software Engineers on the other hand are unlicensed and expected to ensure that their designs are not well known to anyone other than their employers.
It's so true.
*sniff, wipes tear*
I love perl.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
Just so long as it did not wipe out the nation's MasterCard approval system.
--
Fulfill your economic, patriotic duty.
Spend ourselves out of this recession.