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To: Paul Shread who wrote (52672)	8/24/1998 12:19:00 PM
From: Mark Duper	Respond to of 61433

Love it! Business/Technology Editors FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 24, 1998--A newly discovered bug that affects thousands of Cisco Systems' routers could let hackers crash the devices that drive many large corporate networks and a good portion of the Internet backbone, according to a report published in today's Network World, the nation's leading weekly newspaper for enterprise computing. The bug was found in Cisco IOS software versions 9.1 and later and makes it possible for unscrupulous users to gain access to and crash routers, according to Cisco's Web site. Sometimes simply establishing a terminal connection from any computer (via a networking utility called Telnet) could even crash the system, but hackers would need to know the router's Internet address and have significant technical knowledge of Cisco's software to pull off such a feat. Cisco officials have strongly urged corporate network administrators to assume that hostile users can gain access to their Cisco IOS routers. Cisco routers make up the majority -- estimates range up to 80 percent -- of the devices handling electronic traffic on the Internet. They also pervade Fortune 500 corporate networks and most Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Potentially, disruptions could affect home users logging onto the Internet via their ISP as well as corporate network transactions. Cisco has stated that none of its corporate customers have reported any malicious attempts to exploit the software flaw. There have, however, been sporadic reports of unexplained crashes consistent with those that could be caused by the bug, which affects most of Cisco's routers with model numbers greater than or equal to 1000 - including the high end 7000 and 12000 series prevalent in large companies and ISPs. Cisco discovered the bug in early August and is offering free software upgrades to all vulnerable customers, according to Peter long, director of ISO marketing at Cisco. Three large Cisco customers are quoted in the Network World report: IBM Global Services, AT&T Solutions and the University of Southern California. The three together represent tens of thousand of business customers and users that depend on Cisco routers. Network World (http://www.nwfusion.com) is the nation's only newsweekly shaping the future of network computing in the enterprise. Through its publishing, education, software and online products and services, Network World empowers network IS professionals with the knowledge to deliver the open applications and infrastructure required to meet their evolving business needs. Network World, Inc., is a division of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company. IDG publishes more than 290 computer magazines and newspapers and 700 book titles and offers online users the largest network of technology-specific sites around the world through IDG.net (http://www.idg.net), which comprises more than 225 targeted Web sites in 55 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 168 computer-related expositions worldwide, and provides IT market analysis through 49 offices in 41 countries worldwide. Company information is available at idg.com.