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Pentagon Hit by Code Red Worms
The Code Red worm finally squirmed. After playing dead since it was supposed to attack Tuesday night, the computer worm spread Wednesday to more than 150,000 computers and forced the Pentagon to shut down public access to many of its Web sites for the second time in 2 weeks.
But the worm didn't create nearly as much havoc as earlier feared. No slowdown in Internet traffic or damage to Web sites ¡ª the biggest threats of the worm ¡ª were noted.
The FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center now says it expects the worm to hit 350,000 computers, about as many as it did on July 19 when it first surfaced.
The worm isn't spreading as quickly as some observers feared because businesses inoculated their computers with security software.
Still, it may take days before the full damage is known. The worm is intended to deface Web sites ¡ª not to infect consumers' personal computers.
As of midday Wednesday, the worm's growth was already tapering.
Code Red first appeared in a July 19 assault on the White House Web site. The attack was blocked, but it overwhelmed thousands of business computers with junk data that clogged Internet traffic. Code Red primarily infects computers running Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Microsoft's Internet Information Server software.
The White House Web site was not affected by the latest siege, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
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