Word: coded
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This week's column is about the Code Red worm. First, however, I'd like to talk about microbes...
...world of heck did the Code Red worm cause such consternation? Not only did it utterly fail to bring the Internet crashing to a halt as some media sources were claiming, but it never really had the power to do so. Sure, the worm was relatively smart. It could replicate itself across thousands of servers - usually because the owners were never aware that Microsoft software had turned their computer into a server in the first place - and then coordinate what is known as a denial of service attack on a chosen website on a given day at a given time...
...talking the virtual version of HIV here. There was no malicious intent. The greatest effect so far noted in Code Red's last go-round two weeks ago was that the White House website, the ultimate target of its initial attacks, had to change its IP address. Hands up anyone, even anyone who was surfing the White House website at that exact moment, who noticed...
...vast world of potential Internet viruses and worms, Code Red is a grade Z microbe. It would have to go through a significant amount of mutation before it became any sort of serious threat to the Internet's health. So watching the FBI and Microsoft put on their most serious face at Monday's press conference was like a scene from some diabolical 50's sci-fi movie: Attack of the Killer 0.5 in. Ants...
...share a dais with the Justice Department -which is rather like Stalin vowing eternal friendship with Roosevelt to counter the Nazi menace - but they also had their name inextricably linked with the well-being of the Internet itself. This quote from Tuesday's Wall Street Journal is typical: "the Code Red worm may disrupt the Internet on a global scale ? the FBI urged owners of business-type servers to install a patch from Microsoft's website." When the world's in trouble, in other words, Bill Gates comes riding to the rescue...