Virus attacks computers at universities, businesses, homes across U.S.

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 13, 2003

[8/13/03]A virus-like infection spreading across the Internet was discovered in Vicksburg within two hours from when it was first reported in the United States, said a spokesman for a local Internet service provider.

The virus, called LovSan, was discovered about 2 p.m. Monday, computer experts said. Within a brief period, tens of thousands of computers in universities, businesses and homes were affected.

The computer security experts said LovSan exploits an unusually dangerous flaw in the Microsoft Windows software. Once inside a computer, the virus causes the computer to restart, or reboot, continually.

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The virus was given its name from a note left on infected computers that says, “I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!” Another message was also discovered hidden inside the infection that appeared to taunt Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. That message says “billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!”

“This is affecting about 1 percent of our customer base,” said Roy Strickland of Canufly Internet Services, who said that percentage amounts to about 50 customers in the Vicksburg area.

He said Canufly got the first call about 3:30 p.m. from a local office that uses a large number of computers.

Although the number of local computers affected so far is relatively small, Strickland said the virus has the potential of causing greater problems.

“It could be serious if people don’t realize their computer is affected,” he said.

Unlike many other computer viruses, the computer user does not need to open an e-mail or perform some other function, Strickland said.

Computer users know their machine has been infected when they see a popup that says, “Your computer will shut down in 60 seconds.” At the end of that time, the computer shuts down and begins to reboot.

Strickland said many people who have the problem don’t realize it. “They just think their computer is broken,” he said. That usually delays their call to a computer expert, which allows the virus to spread even further.

Security software developed by a Vicksburg resident, when installed on computers, can prevent the virus from running on them, said the head of the company that markets it.

Luke Koestler, 23, has developed a patent-pending system that compares code to be run by a computer to a database of known good code, disallowing unapproved code, Koestler said. His company also has a product that combats viruses on servers by automatically restoring any data viruses may delete, company information said.

By excluding all unknown code instead of only code known to be hostile, the product essentially “makes antivirus software obsolete,” Koestler said.

Distributed under the company name Seventh Knight, the product has been sold mainly through a national reseller, but a Windows-based server product has also become available through Vicksburg’s Siliconsulting and other local resellers, Koestler said.

Apparently the virus has not affected some of the really large users of computers.

“I haven’t heard anything about this one,” said William I. “Buddy” Lewis, Vicksburg president of Trustmark National Bank.

He said he would normally get a message from the bank’s internal computer experts if there is a virus that could affect them. So far, he has received no such message.

Frank Worley, a public affairs officer with the Vicksburg District Corps of Engineers, said there had been no problems with the district’s computers.