March 2, 2004
To: UCOP Personnel
From: Patrick Collins, Director, IR&C; Information and Communication Services
Many UCOP employees experienced network connectivity problems on Monday, March 1. These problems were the result of attacks launched from more than two dozen compromised computers on the UCOP network. The computers had been infected with hacker tools that scanned the network for vulnerable computers and generated excess network traffic, which in turn caused intermittent connection problems. To resolve the situation, it was necessary to identify the compromised computers, take them off the network, and remove the hacker tools. Please contact Michael Shannon, Manager, IR&C; Communication Services at 987-0371 or if you have questions about the network outage.
On March 1, many employees also experienced e-mail problems because a computer on the UCOP network had been compromised and used as a spam gateway. Before the compromised computer could be located and removed from the network, it generated tens of thousands of spam e-mail messages that overwhelmed the e-mail server and disrupted service. Please contact Patrimpas Prapuolenis, Manager, IR&C; Desktop Computing Services at 987-0447 or if you have questions about e-mail service.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by these service outages.
