False Alarm on "Code Red"

Based on early returns, Code Red is a false alarm. In the first hour of its attack, the vaunted computer worm inflicted no discernible damage to the Internet. Online traffic proceeded smoothly. Businesses apparently thwarted the malevolent program because they were alerted ahead of time and were able to prepare, computer-security experts say.

"Our alarms haven't gone off yet," says Ravi Venkatesam, vice president of operations at Atesto.com, which tracks Web performance.

Some security experts had warned that the virulent worm could grind Internet traffic to a crawl.

But Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec AntiVirus Research Center, which develops network-security software, says businesses were aware of the risk and had taken precautions.

Michael Erbschloe, vice president of research at Computer Economics, an independent research organization in Carlsbad, Calif., told the Associated Press that companies have spent $740 million to clean up, monitor and check systems for the worm. He said the loss of productivity associated with the worm is estimated at $450 million.

Systems administrators scrambled to block the worm with a software patch available on Microsoft's Web site at www.microsoft.com/security. About 1 million copies of the patch have been downloaded.

Still, Bill Crowell, CEO of Cylink, a maker of encryption appliances, warns that the worm could strike early this morning when it switches to "flood mode" and bombards computers with data.

The FBI monitored the situation from its round-the-clock Watch and Warning Unit in Washington. Experts don't know where Code Red originated.

Security experts agree Code Red posed a significant threat because of the speed at which it spreads. But some say the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center overhyped the potential damage in a national news conference Monday.

"Oh, my God, if you believe the government, it's the end of the Internet," says Rob Rosenberger, editor of Vmyths .com, which dispels computer-security hysteria. "It illustrates a desperate attempt by NIPC to justify its existence."

Code Red isn't a direct threat to consumer personal computers. But it could cripple millions of computers that control Internet traffic, and it could deface Web pages.

The worm first surfaced in a July 19 attack on the White House Web site that was repelled.

But it infected more than 350,000 computers, flooding them with data and clogging Internet traffic. It also wiggled its way into some of Microsoft's computers and forced the Pentagon to temporarily deny public access to its Web sites.








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