Worm stops State's intranet for nine hours
- By Wilson P. Dizard III
- Sep 25, 2003
The State Department experienced a nine-hour outage of its unclassified intranet, known as OpenNet Plus, because of an infection by the Welchia worm.
The incident severed State's unclassified communications by e-mail between Washington and its overseas locations, Consular Affairs Bureau spokesman Stuart Patt said.
It also brought down the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, which diplomats use to check visa applicants against a list of terrorists, Patt said.
He added that the issuance of visas was halted during the system outage. It did not affect State's classified networks and systems, which are not connected to its unclassified intranet.