The release of the Welchia/Nachi worm coincided with the start of the Fall semester at the UC Berkeley campus. While the virus payload was not exceptionally malicious, its mode of victim discovery had severe impacts as its self-replication was further fueled by the continuous ingress of vulnerable hosts.

Welchia traffic was less prominent on more robustly connected networks, but the wireless LANs at UCB were quickly debilitated, punctuating limitations in the system's architecture and vulnerabilities in the topology. This presentation will discuss methods used to restore wireless usability and efforts to retard the proliferation of this and other worms.

About the Presenter
Christopher Chin is a senior member of the Network Services Team at UC Berkeley, where he and his colleagues support the data network and its associated services, and explore new technologies in their spare time. He returned to his alma mater, where he studied German and Electrical Engineering, after an extended intellectual vacation in the private sector.