Officials fight "CODE RED" virus

[Ripsnort]

First off, I encourage everyone to do as I do, check the manufacturer, if its made in China, set it down, and ask the clerk if they have something like it thats not made in China.  This gets the message out to the retailers quite clear.

 

Officials Fight 'Code Red' Attack

By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - In an unprecedented show of force against an extremely virulent Internet attack, government and private officials on Monday will
implore worldwide organizations to protect themselves from the ``Code Red'' worm.

Representatives from the White House, FBI, Microsoft and others have decided to take the step in the face of one of the largest ever dangers to the Internet.
The worm, similar to a virus, could cause widespread slowdowns and sporadic outages.

``The Internet has become indispensible to our national security and economic well-being,'' said Ron Dick, head of the National Infrastructure Protection
Center, an arm of the FBI. ``Worms like Code Red pose a distinct threat to the Internet.''

Along with posting various warnings on their Web sites, government officials and representatives from Microsoft were holding a news conference Monday
afternoon to publicize their efforts.

The government routinely works with private companies to issue warnings about new hack attacks and viruses, but never before have they made such a
high-profile stand.

While the actual infection rate is unknown, it is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers. In just the first nine hours of its
July 19 outbreak, it infected more than 250,000 systems.

The officials are frustrated that even though a software inoculation was made available over a month before the worm's first attack, many computers are still
defenseless. The patch, which will protect computers, can be found on Microsoft's Web site.

The worm defaces Web sites with the words ``Hacked by Chinese.'' While it doesn't destroy data, it could be modified to do so. At least two mutations
have already been found.

Code Red exploits a flaw discovered in June in Microsoft's Internet Information Services software used on Internet servers. It is found in Windows' NT and
2000 operating systems.

Only computers set to use the English language will have their Web pages defaced. From the first through the 19th of every month, the worm spreads. From
the 20th on, it attacks the White House Web site, trying to knock it offline.

The White House took precautions against it, changing its numerical Internet address to dodge the attack.

Even though the target has moved, the infected computers will still launch their attack. This, officials said, could slow down the Internet causing sporadic but
widespread outages.

Last week, the Pentagon was forced to shut down public access to all of its Web sites temporarily to purge and protect them from the Code Red worm.

Because Code Red spread so quickly, security companies have not been able to figure out who wrote and released it.

Code Red also can damage smaller networks by affecting a certain type of Internet routers, made by Cisco Systems, used for data traffic control.

Steve Lipner, head of Microsoft's security response center, said the company is looking for new ways to distributing patches more efficiently.

The government relies on Microsoft and other technology companies to secure everything from defense networks to financial systems.

``The protection of the Internet requires a partnership with the government, private companies and the public as a whole,'' NIPC's Dick said.

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[blur]

Oh mein gott!

If government computers are shut down how are they supposed to monitor the electronic communications of its citizens!

Today it’s our web pages. Tomorrow it will be our bodily fluids!

From this day forth I’m not eating any more “Chinese Food”. Also I will not use the word “Red” in any casual conversations. I’ll substitute the word “pink-like” instead.