According to Telstra, customers who are infected with Sasser are receiving system messages telling them that their PCs are unable to connect with BigPonds authentication servers.
Telstra has been short on details when it comes to explaining how Sasser interferes with its authentication software and it is yet to state that it does explicitly.
ZDNet Australia has made several request to speak to representative of BigPond's technical operation for a detailed explanation of how Sasser affects its customer authentication software but the carrier is yet to provide one.
BigPond pointed suspicion in the direction of the virus last week when a widespread outage hit its network in Brisbane. According to reports, BigPond's recorded customer service messages said the problem "appeared" to be linked with the virus.
However, BigPond's Web based service status messages on the incident made no reference to the virus.
BigPond's has also alluded to Sasser as having a role in recent "service degradation" experienced by some of its ADSL and cable customers. However, the carrier still appears to be measuring its words carefully when it comes to discussing the matter.
"Due to a worldwide outbreak of the Sasser.A virus and several variants, some customers may be experiencing Service Degradation," said BigPond.
Customers were also told that the virus "could prevent individual customers connecting to the internet" but it's still not clear if the virus is causing the authentication software to malfunction or simply block customers accessing the network.
The situation would leave customers trying to remove the virus from their systems in an annoying conundrum. They need access to the Internet in order to access Microsoft software tools and technical information in order to remove the virus and patch their systems against the vulnerability that allowed it to breach their systems.
as a bigpond cable internet customer i have been experiencing serious problems in the service over the last 4 weeks or so some of the problems include inability to connect more than one computer the the service via a router or stand alone and constant dropouts when they said degradation of the service they were right ! its getting worse than dial-up 56k and i dont say that lightly telstra really needs to pick up its game