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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Telstra blames Swen worm for BigPond crisis By Staff writers, ZDNet Australia October 17, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Telstra-blames-Swen-worm-for-BigPond-crisis/0,139023166,120279842,00.htm
Telstra last night claimed officially the Swen virus/worm was largely responsible for the surge in e-mail traffic on its BigPond network. The telecommunications heavyweight issued a statement claiming "Telstra understands that the virus/worm has been taking over customers' computers and causing them to send large amount of junk e-mails (spam). The carrier claimed its experience was "consistent" with that of other major Internet service providers, although it declined to name them. "The virus/worm multiplies quickly and generates a vast [number] of e-mails, each in excess of 150 kilobytes (being the equivalent of an e-mail containing an image)," the Telstra statement said. The carrier said its technical staff had been working "around the clock" to establish additional network capacity to cater for the "unexpected and unprecedented" increase in e-mail traffic of more than 20 percent. "This additional capacity is expected to deliver gradual improvements to customers who may be experiencing delays with e-mail". The surge in e-mail traffic -- which saw a network infrastructure capable of handling 10.5 million e-mails per day forced to cope with peak volumes of around 13 million -- has seen BigPond customers forced to wait several days to receive some messages, while recipients of messages sent via BigPond servers have also had to wait several days. Telstra said it understood Symantec and Trend Micro concurred with its view.
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