Sapphire Slammer Worm Disrupts Banks And Airlines Amid Cyber Attack

Sapphire Slammer Worm Affects Major Airline And Banks With System Failures

Jan 27, 2003 •

1 min read

An Internet worm unleashed on Saturday impaired key systems in the U.S. government and private sector, delaying operations at one major airline and several media organizations, and knocking banks' cash machines offline. . . . An Internet worm unleashed on Saturday impaired key systems in the U.S. government and private sector, delaying operations at one major airline and several media organizations, and knocking banks' cash machines offline.

At least 160,000 computers worldwide have been infected since the worm debuted early Saturday morning, said Peter Allor, operations director of the Information Technology Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

"That's really a conservative estimate," Allor said. "We'll know about the extent of this attack in a few days."

The effects of the worm -- known variously as "Sapphire," "Slammer" and "SQ-Hell" -- have diminished in many parts of the world since Saturday. Major Internet service providers were able to block traffic destined for servers running a vulnerable Microsoft Corp. database program called SQL Server 2000.

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