ROME, 29 January 2003 — The most serious attack to date on Italy’s Internet network yesterday severely disrupted the country’s post offices, officials said, even as similar attacks around the globe appeared to be subsiding. Computer security expert Fulvio Berghella said yesterday’s attacks from a worm called "SQ Hell" were "the worst ever to hit the country." Online work at Italy’s 14,000 post offices was severely disrupted by the attack, which swamped computers with millions of messages, said Paolo Baldelli, the official responsible for Poste Italiane’s computer system.
Post office computers were swamped with the messages entitled "Hi" from 2:00 a.m. (0100 GMT). Baldelli said it took a team of 80 technicians hours to free 9,000 of the 14,000 post offices.
Italian consumers were unable to use cash machines or pay utility bills online.
Baldelli said the problem would be resolved in the remaining post offices and normal service would resume today.
The worm was particularly virulent, replicating itself at the rate of 8,000 times an hour, said Berghella, who heads an Internet security firm, Securitynet.
"Its very high capacity to replicate itself is slowing down the network and putting computers out of action," he said.
Italy was hit by a similar attack in 2000, and at least eight others last year.
The "SQ Hell" is considered a computer worm, which unlike a computer virus does not require a user to open an e-mail attachment or initiate any other type of command to infect the computer.
A fast spreading attack by the "Sapphire" or "SQL Slammer" worm over the weekend hit an estimated 250,000 computers worldwide, particularly in the United States and Asia. (AFP)
