Computer users should check that their computers had the free protective patch that would fend off the Sasser worm causing panic throughout the world for its ability to force computers to reboot, Microsoft South Africa said on Tuesday.
Unlike previous viruses like MyDoom or Blaster, the Sasser worm doesn't need anyone to click open an email to launch its attack. It simply targets unprotected users who are connected to the Internet, and is reportedly wreaking havoc with international banking and transport networks.
Microsoft South Africa's technical services manager Colin Erasmus said that Sasser targeted a vulnerability in the Microsoft code for Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Although it was not considered "malicious", it makes computers reboot, users battle to access the internet, or they receive a Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) pop-up error message.
He said that most big institutions heeded the early warnings and installed the protective patch the company released on April 13, and were unaffected. But not everybody had followed the golden rule of keeping patches updated and they had beefed up their call centre to cope with the demand.
He explained that non-malicious worms and viruses are usually the work of technically competent teenagers or undergraduates who create them for bragging rights.
A malicious virus is usually used to commit fraud, like altering a banking site.
Some companies even hire hackers to check that their systems can keep up.
Nevertheless, viruses and worms are taken seriously and handed over to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and other law enforcement agencies for investigation, as with the Sasser virus.
The $250 000 (about R1,7-million) reward Microsoft put up for the Blaster virus is still unclaimed.
Meanwhile, major companies Standard Bank and Transnet said that because they had taken precautions and kept their protective patches up to date, they had not been affected.
Louis Lehmann, Standard Bank's director of IT security said they had deployed all the patches and updated anti-virus mechanisms and "it had no impact whatsoever on customer services".
Barry Neuwerth, of Transnet's Group IT, said they had taken all the steps to protect the more than 20 000 workstations in the group.
"The answer is rapid response, don't procrastinate," Neuwerth said.
To access Microsoft's free protective patches log onto: