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Worms Going Further, Faster

Posted by timothy on from the thanks-for-your-attention dept.

Major Byte writes "Rob Kolstad's MOTD (pdf) column in Usenix login; passes along a few distilled factiods from a CAIDA analysis of the 'Sappire/Slammer' Worm. When it was at full blast it was scanning over 3 billion systems per hour--a speed that 'a "better" vulnerability would have enabled infection of the entire internet in 15 minutes, a "flash worm" or a "Warhol Worm."' I think 'better' to mean 'able to infect across a lot of platforms.'"

9 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, the lovely internet... by Qweezle · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm wonderfully happy to live in a world where the only large-scale communication network is prone to mass disruption and/or destruction at the drop of a pin. Great.

  2. Good for the worms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Fast moving worms are harder for those pesky birds to get at.

  3. Re:Oh no! Shut the Interweb off! by rkz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cut off their arms?

    --
    There is no god
  4. I've got worms! by eupheric · · Score: 5, Funny

    obligatory dumb and dumber:
    LLOYD
    (smiling)
    I got worms.

    MARY
    I beg your pardon?

    LLOYD
    That's what we're gonna call it: I
    Got Worms. We're gonna specialize in
    selling worm farms â" you know, like
    ant farms. A lot of people don't
    realize that worms make much better
    pets than ants. They're quiet,
    affectionate, they don't bite, and
    they're super with the kids.

    MARY
    Aren't ants quiet, too?

  5. No worms for me, please! by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank God I've got a Mac! It's hard enough to get regular software ported, I doubt that many people would invest time to port a worm, except "Worms Blast" =D

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  6. Re:Oh no! Shut the Interweb off! by blix5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Harsher spankings for the people that still haven't grasped the concept of NOT clicking that email attachment with a .vbs extension. :P

  7. Re:Oh no! Shut the Interweb off! by calennert · · Score: 5, Funny

    -blink-blink-
    Connecting to AOL...
    -blink-
    You've got mail!
    -blink-blink
    "ooh, an attachment..."

  8. Warhol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    a speed that 'a "better" vulnerability would have enabled infection of the entire internet in 15 minutes, a "flash worm" or a "Warhol Worm."'
    A "Warhol" worm wouldn't infect the Internet in 15 minutes, it would infect it for only 15 minutes.

  9. But by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows that worms DO infect apples.