Fighting malware and spam

Fighting network worms in a large corporate environment

Joe Waddington Nortel Networks
John Morris Nortel Networks

In 2001, Code Red 2 and Nimda drove home the risks network worms can pose to large corporate networks.

Nortel Networks experienced the leading edge of both malicious waves, and during the peak of Nimda, was seeing multiple computers a minute becoming infected! Although these worms brought with them their respective payloads, in many ways the available countermeasures were far more painful than the worms themselves.

Having seen the speed at which worms can enter a corporate network and the disruptions they can cause, Nortel Networks has developed reaction processes that both effectively deal with the threat and keep ahead of its spread. Nortel Networks' corporate anti-worm infrastructure quickly detects worm-like activity, identifies infected machines, and isolates them from the network.