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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."
1.) Use a firewall to block unnecessary access from the external network
2.) Patch Windows often
3.) Use anti-virus software and update the definitions often
I would have thought that the State Department would at least do these minimums (to keep its systems "safe from evil-doers"), but I guess you can't even expect that much from government work.
C:\>
As much the Slashdot community hates Windows and likes to dump on its flaws, I've realized one thing: Windows means jobs in the IT security sector. As a Network Security technician, my job is, among other things, to make sure the latest threat to Microsoft software doesn't bring down the entire infrastructure in the federal department where I work. At least twice a week, my office has a meeting where we discuss the latest Windows virus or exploit, organize a task force, and then do a system-wide deployment of the fix to some 2000+ clients. I like to think that as long as Microsoft keeps making, er, crappy software, and as long as we still have crackers writing virii and trojans, I don't have to worry about losing my job. If there was some magical "perfect" sofware that never needed fixing (note: there isn't) then we wouldn't need IT security professionals now, would we?
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...
According to a CNN article, the State Department shut down the network to prevent the spread of the virus. It was down from noon until 9PM on Tuesday. Shutting down a network on purpose is different from having it "fail" due to a virus.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Some day soon there will be a class action lawsuit against M$ regarless of their 'Hold Harmless Agreement' in the EULA.
And BTW, firwall WON'T in and of themselves stop this kind of attack. Sure firewalls are your first line of defense, but all it takes is someone that has a notebook that is infected from home, a business trip or somewhere ELSE to bring it as a 'trusted' device on your clean network and BOINK, you are infected internally.
What is a gov agency doing having open ports on their firewalls anyway?
Honestly issuing visa's is just way to importiant to trust to a closed OS with known security flaws, with at least one major one a month.
MS is so entrenched in the gov now that its kind of scary, that one day a order might come down to homeland security that some town is nothing but terrioriests and should be arrested, then taken to cuba. Meanwhile some hacker in the assend of the planet wiring a virus to gain entry to the gov systems is laughing his ass of at Ma and Pa being taken to a Marine base in another country.
"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein," - Joe Theisman
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.
Actually, after looking at the state depts website, I found this.
Seems that when someone applies for a visa, gets checked out and denied, they get added to CLASS.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Evidently, the virus was patched/cleaned pretty quickly, and there was no real security risk, as in national security, because when the system is down, they simply do not issue visas. Most places they probably just told people to come back tomorrow.
How? They just do a grep for names without vowels.
So who's responsible for IT security there? If they've outsourced IT security to Microsoft or Symantec, then it is well past time to fire them and put some linux or unix-based (low-cost high-availability) servers up. Ask any Linux sysadmin how they survived the last two months worth of email virus bombardments. Then ask a Microscrap Exchange administrator. Do some simple math on the time and therefore money involved with maintenance of these systems. Why is no-one outraged about the tax dollars being wasted on cleanup of Microsoft-platform based email viruses?
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
They dont.
Most government facilities I've been to use Windows on desktops, and big iron unix servers in the back rooms. Big mainframes that have been there since the early 80s.
There's no way this system with close to 30 million names runs on SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL or any other mid-classed database system.
They shut off the network to make sure it was clean, because one infected terminal could potentially leak a whole lot of information to the wrong people.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
...why governments like Germany, etc, etc, are switching to either Linux or Unix. Windows is just one big gaping security hole. Windows is insecure. It has evolved from a single-user simple desktop on top of DOS to what we have today without much thought to security except for an easily circumvented login.
Unix (whatever your favorite flavor - Linux, Solaris, HPUX, even OSX etc, was designed from the ground up to work in a networked environment. That at least gives you a fighting chance of maintaining some level of security provided you or your MIS department set the system up right (like... dont use a default root password).
If Microsoft wants to save their market share, they should start looking into a Unix-type OS. Either port BSD (they have anyway in their TCPIP stacks) or buy someone out (um, SCO maybe - or maybe I'm psychic?).
Stop trying to push a derivitive of WinNT which came from MS OS/2 launched back in the late 80's.
Sorry to rant on so much and restate the obvious, but geez. How many times before people wise up. Every time some script kiddie throws together some crap and unleashes it, corporations and governments get clobbered.
Jail time for virus authors isnt going to solve the problem, it's time to attack it at the source: Windows.
Some day soon there will be a class action lawsuit against M$ regarless of their 'Hold Harmless Agreement' in the EULA.
Actually, Business Week had an article about that a couple days ago, which I submitted last night (it was rejected). The author closed with (paraphrasing) "Maybe it's time some big customers refused to buy software without some sort of guarantee."
These last few worms and e-mail viruses seem to have become the collective last straw. The unwashed masses are finally beginning to grouse about buggy software-- the tide is slowly beginning to turn against onerous "no liability" EULAs coupled to expensive software that is critical to business.
A few years ago, Microsoft was very quick to whine that any delay in the release of Windows 98 forced on them by the government would hurt the U.S. economy and/or bring about the end of the world as we know it. Well, what about all these businesses who have to eat the costs of cleanup and lost productivity every time there's another Windows worm? Nooooo, that doesn't hurt the economy at all, does it?
~Philly
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.
>> Instead we spend more on a "war on terror" in a year than has been spent in the entire history of cancer research.
Not even remotely true, unless you only count the money spent by the federal government. There are billions spent every day on cancer research by companies big and small, dwarfing what is spent chasing terrorists.
It's like that year at the Oscars when all those wealthy actors stood up and complained that the US doesn't spend enough on the arts.
Anyway, read the Preamble.... "in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity"
No mention of curing cancer, or PBS documentaries, or midnight basketball, or time off from work to take your dog to the vet. Those things are all reasonable, but they're not the primary responsibility of government.
Note, too, the difference in wording: "PROVIDE for the common defense, PROMOTE the general welfare."
Call it what it is: A Microsoft Windows virus. Maybe if the media keeps pointing out what us /.ers already know, the general public will get it through their heads that their choice of OS makes a difference.
Sorry human rights and the right to fair treatment below to EVERYBODY, regardless of citizenship.
We have accepted standards of treatment for people we are actively at war with. People who have no apparent hostile intent should get treated at least as well.
While I agree with you that there needs to be an accepted standard of treatment for terrorist actions, similar to the Geneva Accord for wartime, the sad fact is that such a standard does not, at this time, exist.
And these people aren't being treated unfairly; we're not letting them come to the United States without explaining terrorist connections. The United States doesn't belong to the world, it belongs to us, and we can say who we do and do not want to let in.
While I do feel that there should be some oversight over who gets put on this list and how they are selected, that the list should be made publicly available, and that there should be an appeal process to be taken off the list if necessary, none of those is an inalienable right.
I don't have a right to come into your home at any time I like. I can knock on your door and ask if I can come into your home. But if we don't really know each other, and you've seen me in the neighborhood a couple times with some known violent criminals, you would certainly think twice about inviting me in.
I don't see how the United States implementing a similar policy is any different.
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!