Demon tormented by Nimda worm

NEWS Demon Internet's servers are being hit by a suspected attack from the Nimda worm. Since a software upgrade to the ISP's core network cut off four leased-line customers completely on Tuesday, Demon confirmed its servers have been bombarded with "strange packet patterns" since Nimda was first detected on the same day. Demon ADSL users experienced an impaired service on Tuesday due to routing problems, intermittent connectivity plus some packet loss for dial up connection customers. Many users are still experiencing problems. One Demon user told silicon.com: "Every single leased-line customer is currently without a proper server, no mail, no web and it's been down for over 24 hours." Another customer said: "Incoming messages are getting stuck on Demon's Punt-2 SMTP server and you have to call its help line to get someone to intervene to unstick them." Demon executive director of operations Phil Male said: "There has been trouble over the last few days. We are being hit with strange packet patterns coming from outside our network." Male commented: "It's very hard to tell what the packets are. We are getting tons of connection requests that may be because of the dreaded Nimda virus. The majority of the packets are coming from the US which seems to confirm this." Other ISPs are experiencing similar problems, according to Male, who added that Demon is trying to rectify the situation.