Mailing list suppliers, already reeling from the effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, were among the firms hit this week by the deadly W32 Nimda computer virus.
Many companies shut down their servers after suffering general systems slowdowns and other problems.
“This one has been more crippling than all the other ones,” said Jay Schwedelson, corporate vice president for Worldata/WebConnect, Boca Raton, FL. “It has really hindered the work environment.”
Worldata first noticed the virus on Tuesday morning. “By that night it was rampant,” Schwedelson said. “It gets into Microsoft Excel and Word, and then it just goes into everyone’s computer to the point where you can’t do anything.”
Schwedelson added that some clients “told us to stop [e-mailing] immediately. Their Web sites were crashing, and they couldn’t hand[le any more response.”
Worldata solved the problem at night, avoiding operational slowdowns during the day.
“We spent most of the wee hours of the evening working it our of systems,” Schwedelson said. “We used every patch to try to solve it.”
MeritDirect, Stamford, CT, was also hit. The first hint was when employees started having trouble with their e-mail.
“This virus does not require that you open an attachment,” said Ralph Drybrough, president. “You just open the e-mail, and it lets the thing loose.”
Drybrough added that the virus then “migrates to all the e-mail addresses throughout the entire system.”
The problem was eventually solved by Merrit Technologies, an outside vendor, at a cost of over $5,000. “We shut most of our systems down for the afternoon, so that some people in the accounting department couldn’t do anything,” Drybrough added.
However, he added, the process was “moderate. Once you got into it, it was not difficult to remove.”
Names and Addresses, Wheeling, IL, was also hit.
“The systems started being very sluggish, and running real slow,” said Phil Staples, vice president. “We found documents on desktops that were not supposed to be there.”
Normal anti-virus software didn’t work, but the firm was able to disarm the virus with software downloaded from the Microserver Web site, (www.microsystems.com), Staples said. That tip came from a client that had been hit.
“We had to turn our mail off, and also turn down some desktop PCs until we figured out where it was propagating,” Staples added. “The virus kept regenerating itself.”
RMI Direct Marketing, Danbury, CT, experienced similar problems. The firm closed down its server today, causing it to lose access to its computers, e-mail and zetafax system.
“The phones were the only thing working, but we could get orders out,” said Tally Maffucci, executive vice president. “Fortunately, it’s a slow week. anyway.”
The virus, which tries to break into Mcirosoft’s Internet Information Services software, reportedly has hit thousands of U.S. businesses.
Earlier this week, Attorney General John Ashcroft warned that the worm, which has also affected companies in Asia and Australia, would be worse than the “Code Red” virus, according to wire service reports.
Ashcroft denied that the virus was connected to last week’s terrorist attack. But Staples said that one screen left “a very unpleasant message if you hit it
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