PHILADELPHIA -- An Internet worm is spreading like wildfire on millions of computers around the world, and it has infected Philadelphia's City Hall.

The "LovSan" worm targets business, home and government computers that run on Microsoft operating systems.

The worm wiggled into the computers over Monday, taking out approximately 5,000 of the city's 15,000 desktop computers. That means workers had to resort to antiques to get their jobs done.

"I'm using a pencil and typewriter. I feel like I'm back when I started, 17 years ago," said Maryanne Mahoney, a City Hall worker.

Prosecutors, the water department and the department of Licenses and Inspections were all affected. Emergency 911 services were not affected.

The worm seems to strike computers operating on Windows XP or 2000 systems.

"All operations seem to be running, but slower. So, in the case of (Licenses and Inspection), if you would like to come in and get a license or permit, we still have the capability to do that, but we just don't have all the PCs available to us," said Michael Dean, chief information officer at City Hall.

Philadelphia contracts with Symantec to protect their computers, so what went wrong? So far, the city can't say.

"It's caught large universities, businesses, this was sweeping. This came alive overnight," Dean said.

FeedRoom

Microsoft Worm Strikes City Hall

Dean said the system patches should be in place and offices should be back online Wednesday. City employees said they didn't realize how much they relied on computers until they were gone.

"You don't realize it until it is not up. I already have enough stuff piled up. It makes it worse. You have to try and make up the rest of the day," said Theresa Pinkett, a City Hall worker.

Click here for details on the "LovSan" worm and for a link to the patch you can download to block the virus from infecting your computer.