[Am-info] And on the homeland security front . . .

[T. Guilbert]

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September 23, 2003
State Dept. Says Computers Hit by Virus
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 
Filed at 9:57 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department's electronic 
system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist 
or criminal history failed worldwide late Tuesday 
because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government  unable to
issue visas.

The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and  Support
System, known as CLASS, which contains more than  12.8 million records
from the FBI, State Department and 
U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence 
agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 
suspected terrorists.

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 could not predict how long the outage might 
last.

Such an outage would represent the most serious 
disruption in years to U.S. government computers from an  Internet
infection.

State Department spokeswoman Joanne Moore said the 
agency experienced some computer problems but could not 
confirm the visa-checking system was affected.

``We did have some computer problems,'' she said. 
``They're working on it.''

Every visa applicant is checked against the names in the  CLASS
database. The State Department's automated systems  are designed not
even to print a visa until such a check  is completed.

It was unclear which computer virus might have affected 
the system. But a separate message sent to embassies and  consular
offices late Tuesday warned that the 
``Welchia'' virus had been detected in one facility. 
Welchia is an aggressive infection unleashed last month 
that exploits a software flaw in recent versions of 
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software.

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.

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On the Net:

State Department: www.state.gov



Copyright 2003 The Associated Press 


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