Spam Attack Cripples WorldNet Servers

AT&T WorldNet’s servers are in the middle of a spam attack right now that
has essentially kept customers from sending and receiving emails since
Monday morning.

According to Janet Wyles, WorldNet spokesperson, email delays started
Sunday mid-morning, the result of spam from email servers around the world
flooding and overcoming WorldNet’s email servers’ ability to process the
digital traffic.

“Our people have been working literally around the clock to resolve this,”
Wyles said. “No email has been lost, it’s only been delayed, and we expect
it to get caught up by mid-day today.”

AT&T WorldNet had 1.4 million subscribers, as of Dec. 31.

Customers can still send their emails out, though the problem is they will
join the growing queue of emails waiting to get transferred through
WorldNet’s email servers.

Wyles said some customers have been unaffected by the slowdown, depending
on the particular WorldNet email server they are using.

WorldNet technicians say the problem is attributable to spam messages, from
numerous points of entry (meaning different email servers around the
world), that are flooding their email servers.

Whether this is an intentional attack or just the result of a particularly
eager spammer remains to be seen. Wyles said technicians are still looking
into the origins of the emails and won’t make a determination just yet on
the likely cause.