Blaster/Lovsan Information

The Short and Skinny of It:
The Blaster and/or Lovsan Worm takes advantage of a known a security vulnerability in Windows 2000/XP/NT systems that Microsoft originally reported about in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-026 on July 16th. The worm in essence attempts to infect computers at random internet addresses looking for systems that are vunerable so that the system can be used to further propogate itself and to launch a Denial of Service attack. The worm may also cause infected systems to reboot every few minutes.

More Detailed Information:

• Microsoft's Report About the Potential Threat
• Microsoft Article: What You Should Know About the Blaster Worm and Its Variants
• Detailed Information on the Worm from Symantec

The Fixes, by Operating System, Needed to Prevent Infection and/or to be Applied Before Removal if Infected:

• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows NT

Free Removal Tool:
FixBlast Removal Tool from Symatec

Preventing Infections of this Nature in the Future:
Sometimes the tried and tested solutions are among the best to implement. In this case, and in many others, the impact of viruses/trojans/worms can be reduced or even eliminated by the installation of antivirus software on all systems in your network and by the use of either a hardware firewall for your entire network, or firewall software on each station.

Need Help?:
If the above information is too overwhelming or confusing or you need help either dealing with the present threat or strengthening your network defenses for the future, please contact us and we'll be glad to assist.