Oct 20, 2003 : BigPond E-mail Services Hit With Virus

📅 October 20, 2003 - BigPond (bigpond.com) customers have been experiencing e-mail difficulties due to an attack of the W32.Swen.A virus, the firm's parent company said.

Australian communications firm Telstra, BigPond's parent, said in a statement that it was working to restore service to normal levels. "Telstra's technical staff has 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 per cent," the company said. "This additional capacity is expected to deliver gradual improvements to customers who may be experiencing delays with e-mail."
Telstra followed the statement on Friday with a more detailed explanation of the situation. "Our firewalls have blocked e-mail traffic carrying spam and malicious computer borne viruses and worms. We have deleted old e-mail boxes and added new hardware to increase the capacity on the e-mail network to ensure e-mail is delivered in a timely manner and return to normal service levels as soon as possible."
Telstra CEO Ziggy Switkowski also said on Friday that BigPond would credit its customers with two weeks of access as compensation for the inconvenience. The company said it would also provide customers with BigPond virus and spam filters, together with personal firewall software, free of charge for a period of three months.
The credit and services will be provided to customers automatically, the company said.