The following is a missive from Vice-Admiral Patch, a member of the working group known as “Sea Sorbust”.
Where’s the catastrophe? In this example, if there are 9,999 protected computers and one which is not protected, it is only that single computer which may experience a catastrophe. It is possible that a virus or worm infecting a sufficient number of computers coud wreck havoc on the internet, but it’s hardly inevitable. The recent CODE RED worm is a good example of this, although that caused only some localized slow downs.
Speaking only for myself (a mere typist), rsa, but, firstly, if you can get into one computer of the 10,000 and if you keep your ability to enter at will very quiet, then you can eventually get into almost all of the 10,000. (A few, like the sys admin’s machines, are probably wise to avoid until the “last” moment—the moment at which you decide to initiate utter blow-out. :eek: )
Secondly, you seem to have missed the worm dubbed “Nimda”, (which, some claim, is just the word “admin” reversed), a most unpleasant worm which occured between CodeRed and your post (to be specific, on Sept. 18, IIRC). Nimda didn’t, as I understand things, do much (or even any) damage but it did do (at least) two things:[list=1][li]It created “back door” entries to the computer invaded and[]it imbedded itself into various programs, leaving them acting as they were supposed to with only two indicators of its existence:[list=A][]the (program) file sizes were bigger (which could be noticed) and[*]some Ninda-related programs stayed in continuous operation (which could be noticed)[/list=A][/list=1]I may be wrong but there seems no way to get rid of Nimda short of wiping the hard-drive and re-installing everything from back-up’s or original programs, something most everyone is very much loathe to do because of the time and effort involved. (Patch once speculated that the attacks against the WTCs were little more than a diversion to protect Ninda’s existence on a myriad of computers—to keep those who would normally be erradicating traces of Ninda busy thinking about other things.)[/li]
It is my belief that the real catastrophe is that of a “ticking time bomb” or, as a much better analogy, of a “command-detonated bomb”—one which goes off when someone decides to set it off. Except in this case, the “bomb” is the control of perhaps (many) millions of computers. The situation is bleak and, in the words of the U.S. Air Force’s Mr. Gilligan, such attacks are likely to “be more frequent and more virulent”. ( 
Actually I said “are likely to be”; Mr. G. said “will be”.)
So, Sea Starburst, if you’re so worried, why are you here? Shouldn’t you be logged off the net and hunkered down in your bunker?
Remember last year when the Internet kept crashing? And that virus that killed everybody’s computers last year so we all had to buy new ones? And boy, that millenium thing? When the whole world collapsed into darkness and anarchy and we had to build it up before the apes took over? I hate those damn dirty apes.
. . . and two to take him.
Well, PigWhistle, two things:
[li]I am “logged off the net”—I only get on the Web from a library computer. :o[/li][li]There is no need to hunker down in a bunker since the attacks will only happen in CyberSpace.[/li]
I failed to provide any reference/cite for my comments. It came courtesy of two posters: “MrKnowItAll” and “BBTh” from another message board. The link for what I earlier wrote is to Symantec, a major contributer in the field of CyberSecurity.
Things change quickly in the CounterCyberAttacker world and Symantec offers some modest methods for fixing Nimda. Nonetheless, they say (as of today) the following:
Not nice.
[Quote]
I am “logged off the net”—I only get on the Web from a library computer**
Translation: I am an unemployed doomsayer.