82.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Internet Worms Sparking Business for IT Companies

Internet Worms Sparking Business for IT Companies By CARLOS MARTINEZ Staff Reporter The recent Internet attack by the SoBig.F e-mail worm may have hampered many local firms, but it has meant a jump in business for information technology companies. Phil Mogavero, president and CEO of Woodland Hills-based Data Systems Worldwide, said business has jumped by 25 percent since the worm made its appearance two weeks ago. “Unfortunately, so many of our customers have been ignoring updating virus protection systems that now it’s starting to impact a lot of them,” Mogavero said. The SoBig.F worm was unleashed on computers nationwide on Aug. 20, quickly becoming the fastest spreading virus in the history of the Internet. It generated millions of e-mail messages that clogged e-mail servers for users worldwide. The virus was sent to recipients with an innocuous-looking attachment, then went scouring through the computers’ e-mail addresses and sent itself to those addresses, generating millions of spam e-mails around the world. Some major companies, including the New York Times, Starbucks Corp. and Federal Express Corp., temporarily shut down their servers because of the virus. Many companies in the Valley saw their systems simply crash due to the SoBig worm. Among them was Dreamworks SKG in Glendale where its computer system ground to a halt for a few hours. At Glendale Adventist Medical Center, about 400 infected computers needed a patch before its network was back on line. Countrywide Financial Corp. in Calabasas reported none of its estimated 9,000 computers at its local facilities were impacted by the worm, thanks to a patch installed prior to the attacks. For local IT firms, the last two weeks have been busy. “We had a lot of people going out to take care of problems and it so it got pretty busy for us,” Mogavero said. “We ended up signing up a lot of new customers who were worried about the worm.” Good and the bad While DSW saw its business improve by 25 percent during that week, the worm attack had a downside for the company and other IT firms. Projects involving expansion or improvements of their clients’ existing networks were delayed while those companies installed so-called “patches” and firewalls to prevent future worm attacks. “We had some very big projects that we were scheduled to do and they all got put off,” Mogavero said. “Some of these companies have small IT budgets so a lot of that went to patches instead of the projects,” he added. Hormazd Dalal, president of Encino-based IT firm Castellan Inc., said his company has been forced to trade the smaller patch business for larger scheduled projects. “It’s difficult to plan when you have important installation projects delayed to work on putting in new firewalls and patches,” he said. Like DSW, Castellan has added a number of new clients, many of which were caught off guard by the SoBig. But Dalal says he doesn’t mind picking up new clients even if it means postponing important new projects. For clients of Woodland Hills-based Cal Net Technologies, the worm proved to be nearly a non-event, thanks largely to the company’s efforts at maintaining proper firewalls and patches for its customers. “We handle everything from here with automatic virus updates, so the customer doesn’t have to do anything,” said company President and CEO Zachary Schuler. Gaining clients But for some clients, the virus took its toll, forcing the company to assist clients in securing their networks, resulting in a 10 percent bump in business for the week of Aug. 20. The company, like others contacted by the Business Journal, also added a slew of new customers who were seemingly weary of SoBig’s impact. Butch Barksdale, president of Van Nuys-based IT firm, SIA Inc., said he fears cyber attacks will be on the upswing as SoBig subsides. “We’re doing a lot of business now, but you hate to do it because of this worm, but these worms are getting more sophisticated and it’s going to continue on,” he said. The latest worm came just after the Blaster worm made its appearance on Aug. 12. That worm caused computers with Windows XP to shut down and reboot every few minutes. “Blaster was unique in the fact that it did not transmit itself via e-mail,” Schuler said. “It found a vulnerability in the computer’s remote procedural call which is a way to send commands through a network for a computer to do something specific.” But as Microsoft issued a patch for Blaster, many ignored that company’s June warning about the coming of SoBig and its patch to combat it, leaving many firms open to SoBig’s mischief. “Microsoft puts out so many patches and so I don’t blame people for not reacting to that,” said Dalal. Many customers routinely ignore warnings of potential threats, but this latest wave of cyber attacks may change all of that. “In the past when an IT person says to a customer ‘you better watch out or you may get infected,’ then people think that the guy just wants more money, but when Dan Rather comes along says ‘be careful,’ people start to take notice,” Dalal said. Hugh B. Bishop, vice president of Aberdeen Group Inc., a Boston-based technology industry market research firm, said the latest bug has given a boost to IT firms. “It’s making a lot of companies realize the importance of IT to their business,” he said. “They’re starting to realize that it’s not a minor aspect of doing business anymore.” So far, the FBI reportedly has been able to locate the origin of the virus to an Internet service provider in Phoenix where a credit card was used to open an account where the virus program was first posted. But no one has yet been identified as the worm’s culprit.

Featured Articles

Related Articles