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Virus Hits Federal Visa-Checking System
By TED BRIDIS
AP Technology Writer
September 24, 2003, 1:16 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- A virus seriously disrupted computer systems at the State Department, including the database for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history. The outage left the U.S. government unable to issue visas worldwide for nine hours.
Effects of the virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 15 million records from the FBI, the State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists.
State Department spokesman Stuart Patt said the "Welchia" virus did not affect any data on the name-checking system, and the agency's classified computer network -- used to send its most sensitive messages and files -- was not affected. Service to some consular offices in Asia was restored within 11 hours.
Welchia is an aggressive infection unleashed last month that exploits a software flaw in recent versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.
"To prevent the worm from spreading to our worldwide network, we closed off the department's intranet unclassified system," Patt said. "The visa name-check is part of that."
Patt said Wednesday that any backlog of applicants waiting to be checked against the system had already cleared. "There will be possibly some people whose visas will be delayed for a few hours or maybe by a day," he said.
In an internal message sent late Tuesday to embassies and consular offices worldwide, officials cautioned that "CLASS is down due to a virus found in the system." There was no backup system immediately available, and officials said they could not predict how long the outage might last.
Hours later, a terse update was sent worldwide: "CLASS is up." A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Seoul, Maureen Cormack, said it was a "short outage" and "not a major problem." She said interviews for visa applicants continued during the outage but decisions were delayed until the system was back up.
The State Department issues roughly 7 million visas annually, Patt said. Every applicant is checked against the names in the CLASS database, and the department's automated systems are designed to not even print a visa until such a check is completed.
"No terrorist is going to take advantage of this nine-hour lapse to somehow gain access to the United States, but it does complicate our ability to be effective and efficient," said Roger Cressey, a former White House cybersecurity adviser. "This is a warning -- someone looking to launch an attack with a malicious payload against the State Department could have had much more consequence."
Collectively, Welchia and a related virus, "Blaster," have infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide, including computers at the Federal Reserve in Atlanta, Maryland's motor vehicle agency and the Minnesota Transportation Department.
The State Department has invested heavily in the CLASS system since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, more than doubling the number of names that applicants are checked against. One provision of the Patriot Act, passed just weeks after the attacks, added FBI records, including the bureau's violent gang and terrorist database. The list also includes the names of at least 20,000 people accused of serious Customs violations and the names of 78,000 suspected terrorists.
The disruption came one day before a technology trade group, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, published a report by seven experts complaining that the U.S. government relies too heavily on software from Microsoft.
These experts contend the widespread dominance of Windows has created an unhealthy "monoculture" inadequately resistant to viruses and attacks by hackers. The CCIA has lobbied aggressively in the United States and Europe for tough antitrust sanctions against Microsoft. Its largest members include Microsoft's biggest rivals, including Sun Microsystems Inc. and Oracle Corp.
"Having more than one operating system running inside your enterprise or government structure would be an improvement," said Perry Metzger, a managing partner of Metzger, Dowdeswell & Co. LLC, a New York-based consulting firm. "It's hardly the only thing that needs to be done, but it's one thing that should be done." |
