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CNN Live At Daybreak
Bush Reaches Out to Arab World; America's Voice; Sasser Worm Slithering Around World
Aired May 06, 2004 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: "The Washington Post" has published new photos showing U.S. soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners. The mother of the soldier you see in this picture says her daughter told her -- and I quote -- "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
So, those pictures are coming out this morning on the alleged prison abuse scandal. It comes one day after President Bush's effort to control damage in the Arab world.
Let's get the latest from our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, who joins us live by phone from Washington.
Dana -- does the White House think the president's interviews yesterday helped?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, they're watching and listening just like we are to see what the reaction is, but certainly we can't underestimate the impact, or at least the fact, that the president himself felt the need to go out and do these interviews, the idea that he had to do the damage control, particularly after they felt that perhaps they did what they needed to do when the president spoke last week in the Rose Garden about this. But it is something that has really stirred up quite a controversy within the walls of the White House.
And we know, of course, that although the president is saying publicly he is standing by the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and he has confidence in him, we were told that he gave him a dressing-down of sorts in private in the Oval Office, because he was not kept well-informed about this over the past few months.
COSTELLO: On another subject, Dana, the president has a meeting today with a Middle East leader, King Abdullah. King Abdullah is coming back to Washington after postponing an earlier meeting. Why is King Abdullah here?
BASH: Well, as you said, this is something that was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago, and King Abdullah cancelled that particular meeting because of the outrage in the Arab world over not the Iraq issue, but over the decision by the president to back a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of Gaza and to pull out of some of the West Bank.
Now, this is something that, of course, is a separate issue, but the fact that the president is going to have an Arab leader here at the White House while this whole issue is going on will be quite interesting to watch, particularly as he is -- you were just talking about it -- trying to encourage the Arab world to understand from his perspective that these few people who are responsible for these abuses do not represent the American public.
Dana Bash reporting live from Washington this morning.
Well, it looks like your vote will be as important this year as it was back in that close race of the year 2000. We have some new numbers for you this morning from the Gallup organization about the president's approval rating and the Bush-Kerry match-up.
So, let's head live to Princeton, New Jersey, and Gallup's editor-in-chief, Frank Newport.
Good morning -- Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, George W. Bush's overall job approval rating is now tied for the lowest of his administration. That's at 49 percent. You can see our trend over the last few times that we've asked it. He was at 49 a couple of other times earlier this year. Any incumbent below 50 percent, that's the danger zone, as we've been telling you, and we all know.
Now, on what we call sub-approvals, Carol, this is very important, approval of Bush handling certain key issues. All of these -- I'll repeat -- all four of these are at the lowest points of his administration, sometimes by just one point, but still, all of these are down.
Look at terrorism: 52 percent. That's about 50, but it was at 60 percent just a few weeks ago in our last poll. Handling Iraq, only 42 percent of Americans approve of Bush's performance there. World affairs, 42, and the economy down to 41 percent. Again, all of these are at administration lows in our latest poll.
Satisfaction with the way things are going, that's trending down as well. The American public is just not in a good mood now, perhaps because of the news out of the Middle East. Perhaps because of the economy, you can see how that slipped to 36 percent; 36 percent is the low of the administration for dissatisfaction. It ties the 36 percent we had at one other point in March of last year -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what exactly has hurt the president's standing with the American people? Is it the situation in Iraq?
NEWPORT: We do believe that the situation in Iraq, the images that we have been seeing, clearly have hurt President Bush's standing. Also, our economic ratings, interestingly, on how the public is looking at the economy are also down, not up. We think that's having an effect as well.
I might show you, Carol, the Kerry versus Bush trial heat. We track this, of course. It's up and it's down, but right now dead even. And it was Bush had a lead last time we did it. So, Bush is behind Kerry at this point, but clearly he's lost the lead he had just a couple of weeks ago. It's a very, very close race -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, interesting numbers for us. Frank Newport live from Princeton, New Jersey, this morning.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, the invasion of the Sasser worms. Where will this computer enemy hit next? And, what can you do to protect your PC? Our resident technology expert, Daniel Sieberg, is in the house to give you some advice.
Plus, take the pressure off of your outdoor chores. Chad shares the lowdown on which pressure washers can get the job done.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Well, I hope the Sasser worm A, B or C hasn't slithered into your world. If they have, you're not alone. Millions of personal and business computers around the world have been Sassered (ph). China is said to be next.
Our tech expert, Daniel Sieberg, is here live for some Sasser worm 101.
Welcome to DAYBREAK.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thank you. Yes, good morning.
The Sasser worm does continue to spread, having affected about a million PCs worldwide. It's still rated very high-risk by a lot of anti-virus companies out there.
Of course, a lot of people are wondering, why would somebody send this worm out onto the Internet? We decided to ask some security experts for a little insight into possibly why someone could have done this. We have a list of some of those we can show you right now.
First of all, believe it or not, sometimes people create worms or viruses to try and get a job. They think that if they can prove their success at this, even though it's a big pain to a lot of people, that they can even get a job at an anti-virus company, because perhaps they have insight into how the other side operates.
A lot of times they do it for recognition. They brag about it with their peer group online. They boast about what they're able to do.
To jab at large companies. Of course, this is a Microsoft vulnerability, so in this case they're perhaps going after Microsoft.
As well to steal money or to open back doors. Now, what does that mean? Well, a back door opened up on your computer, and, in fact, this Sasser worm does open a back door on your computer. And that allows somebody to possibly come back later to get information off of your computer, even to use it as a zombie computer to send out spam and that sort of thing.
In the case of Sasser, though, a lot of security experts are saying, you know, they're doing it just to cause trouble. It's very disruptive, and a lot of people would agree with that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It's just the getting a job thing just has me flamboozled (ph).
SIEBERG: Yes.
COSTELLO: How can you protect yourself from the Sasser worm?
SIEBERG: Well, Carol, there are a few things you can do. First of all, as we pointed out, it is a Microsoft vulnerability. And what you want to do to get started is to go to the Microsoft Web site at Microsoft.com. We've got it loaded up right here. They've got a lot of information at the top of the Web site about the Sasser worm and steps you can take.
If you click on this link at the very top here, it will take you to this page that says "What you should know about the Sasser worm and its variants." Because, as you pointed out, there are a few variants already on the Internet.
The first thing you want to do is enable a firewall on your computer. What that's going to do is it's going to stop it from sending itself out. You may have heard people talk about how it's a worm, not a virus. What that means is that it's not actually -- it has nothing to do with e-mail. It needs no involvement from you. It's continually sending itself out. So, unless you can patch your system and put up this firewall, it's going to keep trying to send itself out. So, that's the first thing you need to do.
Then you need to go up and find this Sasser worm, if it is on your computer. If your computer is rebooting, if it seems very sluggish, that's a clue that you may have this worm on your computer. You can check your PC for infection. You see this link right here. That's something that Microsoft allows you to do. A lot of anti-virus companies allow you to do that as well.
Then you need to patch your system. You need to get this update in place. It does affect Windows XP and Windows 2000 users. So, if you're among those people -- and there are many people out there who use those operating systems -- that is the main thing you need to do is to close up this hole to fix your computer, and basically update all of your anti-virus software.
Now, if you have been hit by the worm and you've done all of these things and you've patched your system, you should be OK in theory. But you need to keep up to date with all of these things. It's still out there. It's still very serious for a lot of people. It has caused a lot of damage.
And you pointed out that it's amazing that some of these hackers might want to try and find a job. It's one of those things you may not want to put it on your resume right away. COSTELLO: No.
SIEBERG: There are a lot of people rather upset about this right now.
COSTELLO: I think so.
SIEBERG: Yes.
COSTELLO: Thank you very much, Daniel Sieberg, our tech expert.
SIEBERG: All right.
COSTELLO: The continuing effects of the Sasser worm bring to mind national security. PBS' "Frontline" will air "Cyber Wars" tonight. Featured: Richard Clarke. Yes, that Richard Clarke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the past, you would count the number of bombers and the number of tanks your enemy had. In the case of cyber war, you really can't tell whether the enemy has weapons until the enemy uses them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: We thought this was a good time to talk with "Frontline's" producer, Michael Kirk. He joins us live from New York this morning.
Welcome.
MICHAEL KIRK, PBS "FRONTLINE" PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Michael, obviously the U.S. is very involved in the physical fight after terrorism. Is it ignoring what could happen in cyberspace?
KIRK: Well, I wouldn't say ignore, because, of course, they are vulnerable and desperately worried about it. I think it is a case of resources and their own ability to develop systems to stop who is trying to take over and map the Web.
What they're noticing and what some of them believe Sasser was all about was this ongoing effort by someone -- and different people have different theories about who that is -- someone to map our infrastructure using the Internet and the Web.
COSTELLO: Well, the Sasser worm has proved to be an irritant at most, at least we hope so. What kinds of things, though, could a cyber terrorist do?
KIRK: Well, one of the many things the fellow who was on just now was talking about the idea that computers could be made zombies. People's home computer infected, that is taken over by some force outside of the United States or somewhere in the United States, millions of them have been employed in the past and would be employed in the future as part of an attack -- this is how the theory goes -- as part of an attack on the infrastructure -- the American power grid. We remember when the lights went down in the Northeast last -- what was it -- last fall.
The idea that somehow they could get at these systems using everyone's home computer as sort of weapons in this war, they'd basically wake up your sleeping computer and use it as an assault weapon, if you will, in the war to attack the systems that control the power grid, water supplies, air traffic control systems, those kinds of things, is the deepest fear that I think faces the people at the Defense Department and other places.
COSTELLO: And, you know, it's strange, sometimes like teenagers are doing this. So, you know, they've acquired all of that knowledge, and they're able to do this. So, it does make you wonder.
You said some steps are being taken to combat cyber terrorism. What are those steps specifically?
KIRK: Well mostly -- and the sad story and I think the dirty little secret is not nearly the sophisticated level of steps we would all hope and believe would be taken or would be being taken. Mostly what they are, highly secret technology has been developed to watch and try to backtrack who is doing this. The feeling being that if they can find who it is that's roaming around and making these probes with these various worms and various other devices, if we can find out who they are, we can trace back to Pakistan, wherever they happen to be, and catch the bad guys.
The great fear, of course, is that this is al Qaeda or al Qaeda offshoots, who are using computers, which don't cost very much money, and the information that is already available and on the Web and the great power of university computer systems, which are regularly hacked into, to be their own weapons inside the war.
COSTELLO: Interesting, interesting, interesting. Michael Kirk, producer of "Frontline's" "Cyber Wars." That airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
KIRK: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:44 Eastern Time. Here's what's all new this morning.
A U.S. soldier and six Iraqis have been killed in a suicide car bombing today in Baghdad. Two soldiers and 23 Iraqis were injured.
Filmmaker Michael Moore is vowing to have his new documentary released, even if he has to drive it from state to state himself. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is critical of President Bush. The Walt Disney Company has blocked distribution.
In money news, it looks like the futures are pointing toward a weak opening today. A couple of economic reports come out today -- weekly jobless claims and retail sales for April; unemployment rate numbers also out tomorrow.
In sports, a little pizzazz from the Mets' Mike Piazza. He broke Carlton Fisk's Major League record, career home runs by a catcher. The new record is now 352. And for what it matters, the Mets beat the Giants 8-2.
In culture, a rare discovery in Guatemala. Get this: Archeologists have found the tomb and the skeleton of a Mayan queen who lived 1,200 years ago. They found it while excavating a palace in the rain forest.
(WEATHER BREAK)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, wash your worries away. If only that were possible. First though, you have to know what tools to use and how to use them. We're talking pressure washers 101 with our expert from The Home Depot. That's coming your way next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Power tools today. We're talking about power washers, in fact. You've got all of this gook on your furniture, on your deck, on your car, that was sitting out all weekend, all winter. Now, it looks awful. You've got this furniture and you don't want to throw it away or clean it.
Dave White from The Home Depot joins us now. He says you can clean it with some power with some water.
DAVE WHITE, THE HOME DEPOT: That's right. You know, instead of using elbow grease, use some pressure and some power. And pressure washers, I know that you're a firm believer in using the pressure washer.
MYERS: I've already burned out two of them in my lifetime, so, yes.
WHITE: So, yes, you're using them. And they're great. And a lot of people don't really understand what they do, but it's pretty basic. I mean, there's a motor or an engine and a pump that force water from your garden hose at high pressure to do the cleaning work for you. And you can change the pressure depending on either the type of nozzle or tip you use. Or in some cases, it's an adjustable nozzle, so you can get more or less pressure.
MYERS: Let's start with the electric one, because these are -- the price point on these is much better, maybe $179, $200 or whatever it is.
WHITE: Yes.
MYERS: I was not happy with the one that I had. It just didn't give me a lot of pressure, not a lot of cleaning power. WHITE: Right. And that's a great point, Chad. Before you go buy one, you really need to think about, first of all, how you're going to use it, because you use it a lot, you're going to use it a couple of hours, you need to go ahead and get something that's got a lot of power and it's going to last a long time. A lot of folks...
MYERS: Or it's going to drive you crazy.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: It's going to take you six weeks to clean your driveway.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: By the time you get one end clean, the part you started on is dirty again.
WHITE: That's right. Yes, take a look at what you're going to do. Are you going to clean your -- maybe it's a small sidewalk. Maybe you're just going to do patio furniture, a car or a boat, you know, once every now and then. Then you know what? You don't have to go spend a ton of money. You want to look for one that's got maybe 1,500 PSI, something like that. That's pounds per square inch.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: And then you can work up from there. So...
MYERS: But you also said something about gallons per minute.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: Explain to the viewers about that.
WHITE: If you're going to go look for a pressure washer, and you want to compare apples to apples -- because there's a lot of factors -- you want to take the pounds per square inch, or the PSI, like this is 2,600.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: And then you look for the gallons per minute, which is the water flow.
MYERS: OK.
WHITE: And you multiply those two, and it gives you kind of a cleaning power.
MYERS: OK.
WHITE: So you take that number, and you can compare any one of these to see which one has the most cleaning power, because it's not just the pressure. It also is the volume, and the more volume or flow of water goes, the more cleaning power you have.
MYERS: Sure.
WHITE: And, again, if you're going to be doing large driveways and the siding of your house, you want something that's going to go, and you don't want to be there for all day long doing one little job.
MYERS: Right. Let's say we've already got one, we've already rented on, bought one, whatever, and you're doing to clean your deck.
WHITE: OK.
MYERS: You've got to be careful, because these things will blast a hole in your wood.
WHITE: That's a great point. And I've seen it happen. A lot of folks immediately go to the highest pressure nozzle or setting, and it will literally tear up wood if you're not careful. Here's what you want to do. Make sure that you start with the lowest pressure. For this one, for example, you just twist the nozzle to the low pressure setting.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: Start there, start your work, start back maybe four or five feet and work forward. And the closer you get, obviously, the more pressure you're going to have. And then if you need to increase the pressure, because it's not doing what you need, just increase it gradually.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: So, that you don't start out by really damaging the wood. You're going to be really upset.
MYERS: A lot of people clean their homes with them, too, the siding. And you can blow water right into your house with it if you get too close, you know.
WHITE: That's another great point. The angle really makes a difference.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: If you're spraying your siding and you're spraying up at a really steep angle, obviously you can get it right up in between your siding.
MYERS: You sure can.
WHITE: You can get it where your roof meets your soffet (ph) at your gutters. You don't want to get it up there, because the water can actually get into your attic. So, yes, you just have to use some common sense with that.
MYERS: You brought a bunch of products, and I'll be the first one to say that I never use them. I never hooked them up to my thing. I just use the power itself. WHITE: Right.
MYERS: But you say that using these actually helps out the cleaning.
WHITE: It does. You want to take basically any chance you can to increase your advantage over the dirt, all right? And you can get them for a lot of different things. I mean, there is house and siding.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: Car wash, you can get kind of all-purpose, which you may want to do if you're just going to be doing a lot of things in one day.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: Deck and roof, like if your roof has a lot of mold and mildew on it, you actually can get roof cleaner.
MYERS: I'm not going up on a wet roof cleaning my roof, bud.
WHITE: No, I mean, if you have some scaffolding or if you're got a one-story. But the way to use these in most cases, both of these units actually will accept an outside detergent. This one you have...
MYERS: Yes. It actually comes out of here.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: If you put this in the bucket right in the hole.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: And then turn it on.
WHITE: And then turn it on. It will mix it for you, because these are concentrate, and this unit will actually do the mixing. And all you have to do is you could actually hang this bottle off the side over there. You could even fashion your own hook or buy a hook. And then as you go along, it will siphon that through and take good care of it. Let it soak, and then...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITE: And then you apply that low pressure, use the high pressure to clean, and you're in good shape.
MYERS: Got to go, bud. All right, Dave, thank you very much.
WHITE: Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: I hope that helped. I hope you got some stuff cleaned this weekend.
Carol -- back to you.
COSTELLO: I'm going right out to get a power washer.
MYERS: Yes, I bet you are.
WHITE: Come see me. I'll take care of you.
COSTELLO: Oh, great. Did you see the new DAYBREAK cup? Did you see it?
WHITE: No.
MYERS: I did not.
WHITE: No, I haven't gotten one of those.
MYERS: Is it in?
COSTELLO: Well, you'll have to answer our questions.
WHITE: All right, I'm going to...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: In fact, Chad will join me to name a coffee mug winner coming up. But first the latest headlines for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All right, take it away.
MYERS: I saw Bob Seger about six years ago. He still puts on a great concert.
DAYBREAK coffee mug, time to give it away. Here were the questions from yesterday. Do not answer these. The ones for today are still coming up.
What number of troops is the Pentagon expected to keep in Iraq through 2005? That number was 138,000. And what film is Disney blocking Miramax from distributing? And that was, obviously, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
And the winner, Janice Norberg from Saint Petersburg, Florida. As they say, your cup is in the mail.
COSTELLO: Congratulations, Janice.
MYERS: Now the questions for today.
Ads for what major motion picture are going to be on the bases at the Major League baseball games?
And in a "Frontline" report, what was the year that cyber security was recognized as a national issue? What year was that cyber security recognized as a national issue? And we'll have those answers tomorrow.
COSTELLO: Oh, a tough one, OK. Well, thank you for joining DAYBREAK. That kind of does it for us, doesn't it?
MYERS: We are done.
COSTELLO: Wow! From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.
MYERS: See you tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 6, 2004 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: "The Washington Post" has published new photos showing U.S. soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners. The mother of the soldier you see in this picture says her daughter told her -- and I quote -- "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
So, those pictures are coming out this morning on the alleged prison abuse scandal. It comes one day after President Bush's effort to control damage in the Arab world.
Let's get the latest from our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, who joins us live by phone from Washington.
Dana -- does the White House think the president's interviews yesterday helped?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Well, they're watching and listening just like we are to see what the reaction is, but certainly we can't underestimate the impact, or at least the fact, that the president himself felt the need to go out and do these interviews, the idea that he had to do the damage control, particularly after they felt that perhaps they did what they needed to do when the president spoke last week in the Rose Garden about this. But it is something that has really stirred up quite a controversy within the walls of the White House.
And we know, of course, that although the president is saying publicly he is standing by the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and he has confidence in him, we were told that he gave him a dressing-down of sorts in private in the Oval Office, because he was not kept well-informed about this over the past few months.
COSTELLO: On another subject, Dana, the president has a meeting today with a Middle East leader, King Abdullah. King Abdullah is coming back to Washington after postponing an earlier meeting. Why is King Abdullah here?
BASH: Well, as you said, this is something that was supposed to take place a couple of weeks ago, and King Abdullah cancelled that particular meeting because of the outrage in the Arab world over not the Iraq issue, but over the decision by the president to back a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of Gaza and to pull out of some of the West Bank.
Now, this is something that, of course, is a separate issue, but the fact that the president is going to have an Arab leader here at the White House while this whole issue is going on will be quite interesting to watch, particularly as he is -- you were just talking about it -- trying to encourage the Arab world to understand from his perspective that these few people who are responsible for these abuses do not represent the American public.
Dana Bash reporting live from Washington this morning.
Well, it looks like your vote will be as important this year as it was back in that close race of the year 2000. We have some new numbers for you this morning from the Gallup organization about the president's approval rating and the Bush-Kerry match-up.
So, let's head live to Princeton, New Jersey, and Gallup's editor-in-chief, Frank Newport.
Good morning -- Frank.
FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Good morning, Carol.
Indeed, George W. Bush's overall job approval rating is now tied for the lowest of his administration. That's at 49 percent. You can see our trend over the last few times that we've asked it. He was at 49 a couple of other times earlier this year. Any incumbent below 50 percent, that's the danger zone, as we've been telling you, and we all know.
Now, on what we call sub-approvals, Carol, this is very important, approval of Bush handling certain key issues. All of these -- I'll repeat -- all four of these are at the lowest points of his administration, sometimes by just one point, but still, all of these are down.
Look at terrorism: 52 percent. That's about 50, but it was at 60 percent just a few weeks ago in our last poll. Handling Iraq, only 42 percent of Americans approve of Bush's performance there. World affairs, 42, and the economy down to 41 percent. Again, all of these are at administration lows in our latest poll.
Satisfaction with the way things are going, that's trending down as well. The American public is just not in a good mood now, perhaps because of the news out of the Middle East. Perhaps because of the economy, you can see how that slipped to 36 percent; 36 percent is the low of the administration for dissatisfaction. It ties the 36 percent we had at one other point in March of last year -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So, what exactly has hurt the president's standing with the American people? Is it the situation in Iraq?
NEWPORT: We do believe that the situation in Iraq, the images that we have been seeing, clearly have hurt President Bush's standing. Also, our economic ratings, interestingly, on how the public is looking at the economy are also down, not up. We think that's having an effect as well.
I might show you, Carol, the Kerry versus Bush trial heat. We track this, of course. It's up and it's down, but right now dead even. And it was Bush had a lead last time we did it. So, Bush is behind Kerry at this point, but clearly he's lost the lead he had just a couple of weeks ago. It's a very, very close race -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, interesting numbers for us. Frank Newport live from Princeton, New Jersey, this morning.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, the invasion of the Sasser worms. Where will this computer enemy hit next? And, what can you do to protect your PC? Our resident technology expert, Daniel Sieberg, is in the house to give you some advice.
Plus, take the pressure off of your outdoor chores. Chad shares the lowdown on which pressure washers can get the job done.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Well, I hope the Sasser worm A, B or C hasn't slithered into your world. If they have, you're not alone. Millions of personal and business computers around the world have been Sassered (ph). China is said to be next.
Our tech expert, Daniel Sieberg, is here live for some Sasser worm 101.
Welcome to DAYBREAK.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Carol, thank you. Yes, good morning.
The Sasser worm does continue to spread, having affected about a million PCs worldwide. It's still rated very high-risk by a lot of anti-virus companies out there.
Of course, a lot of people are wondering, why would somebody send this worm out onto the Internet? We decided to ask some security experts for a little insight into possibly why someone could have done this. We have a list of some of those we can show you right now.
First of all, believe it or not, sometimes people create worms or viruses to try and get a job. They think that if they can prove their success at this, even though it's a big pain to a lot of people, that they can even get a job at an anti-virus company, because perhaps they have insight into how the other side operates.
A lot of times they do it for recognition. They brag about it with their peer group online. They boast about what they're able to do.
To jab at large companies. Of course, this is a Microsoft vulnerability, so in this case they're perhaps going after Microsoft.
As well to steal money or to open back doors. Now, what does that mean? Well, a back door opened up on your computer, and, in fact, this Sasser worm does open a back door on your computer. And that allows somebody to possibly come back later to get information off of your computer, even to use it as a zombie computer to send out spam and that sort of thing.
In the case of Sasser, though, a lot of security experts are saying, you know, they're doing it just to cause trouble. It's very disruptive, and a lot of people would agree with that -- Carol.
COSTELLO: It's just the getting a job thing just has me flamboozled (ph).
SIEBERG: Yes.
COSTELLO: How can you protect yourself from the Sasser worm?
SIEBERG: Well, Carol, there are a few things you can do. First of all, as we pointed out, it is a Microsoft vulnerability. And what you want to do to get started is to go to the Microsoft Web site at Microsoft.com. We've got it loaded up right here. They've got a lot of information at the top of the Web site about the Sasser worm and steps you can take.
If you click on this link at the very top here, it will take you to this page that says "What you should know about the Sasser worm and its variants." Because, as you pointed out, there are a few variants already on the Internet.
The first thing you want to do is enable a firewall on your computer. What that's going to do is it's going to stop it from sending itself out. You may have heard people talk about how it's a worm, not a virus. What that means is that it's not actually -- it has nothing to do with e-mail. It needs no involvement from you. It's continually sending itself out. So, unless you can patch your system and put up this firewall, it's going to keep trying to send itself out. So, that's the first thing you need to do.
Then you need to go up and find this Sasser worm, if it is on your computer. If your computer is rebooting, if it seems very sluggish, that's a clue that you may have this worm on your computer. You can check your PC for infection. You see this link right here. That's something that Microsoft allows you to do. A lot of anti-virus companies allow you to do that as well.
Then you need to patch your system. You need to get this update in place. It does affect Windows XP and Windows 2000 users. So, if you're among those people -- and there are many people out there who use those operating systems -- that is the main thing you need to do is to close up this hole to fix your computer, and basically update all of your anti-virus software.
Now, if you have been hit by the worm and you've done all of these things and you've patched your system, you should be OK in theory. But you need to keep up to date with all of these things. It's still out there. It's still very serious for a lot of people. It has caused a lot of damage.
And you pointed out that it's amazing that some of these hackers might want to try and find a job. It's one of those things you may not want to put it on your resume right away. COSTELLO: No.
SIEBERG: There are a lot of people rather upset about this right now.
COSTELLO: I think so.
SIEBERG: Yes.
COSTELLO: Thank you very much, Daniel Sieberg, our tech expert.
SIEBERG: All right.
COSTELLO: The continuing effects of the Sasser worm bring to mind national security. PBS' "Frontline" will air "Cyber Wars" tonight. Featured: Richard Clarke. Yes, that Richard Clarke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the past, you would count the number of bombers and the number of tanks your enemy had. In the case of cyber war, you really can't tell whether the enemy has weapons until the enemy uses them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: We thought this was a good time to talk with "Frontline's" producer, Michael Kirk. He joins us live from New York this morning.
Welcome.
MICHAEL KIRK, PBS "FRONTLINE" PRODUCER: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Michael, obviously the U.S. is very involved in the physical fight after terrorism. Is it ignoring what could happen in cyberspace?
KIRK: Well, I wouldn't say ignore, because, of course, they are vulnerable and desperately worried about it. I think it is a case of resources and their own ability to develop systems to stop who is trying to take over and map the Web.
What they're noticing and what some of them believe Sasser was all about was this ongoing effort by someone -- and different people have different theories about who that is -- someone to map our infrastructure using the Internet and the Web.
COSTELLO: Well, the Sasser worm has proved to be an irritant at most, at least we hope so. What kinds of things, though, could a cyber terrorist do?
KIRK: Well, one of the many things the fellow who was on just now was talking about the idea that computers could be made zombies. People's home computer infected, that is taken over by some force outside of the United States or somewhere in the United States, millions of them have been employed in the past and would be employed in the future as part of an attack -- this is how the theory goes -- as part of an attack on the infrastructure -- the American power grid. We remember when the lights went down in the Northeast last -- what was it -- last fall.
The idea that somehow they could get at these systems using everyone's home computer as sort of weapons in this war, they'd basically wake up your sleeping computer and use it as an assault weapon, if you will, in the war to attack the systems that control the power grid, water supplies, air traffic control systems, those kinds of things, is the deepest fear that I think faces the people at the Defense Department and other places.
COSTELLO: And, you know, it's strange, sometimes like teenagers are doing this. So, you know, they've acquired all of that knowledge, and they're able to do this. So, it does make you wonder.
You said some steps are being taken to combat cyber terrorism. What are those steps specifically?
KIRK: Well mostly -- and the sad story and I think the dirty little secret is not nearly the sophisticated level of steps we would all hope and believe would be taken or would be being taken. Mostly what they are, highly secret technology has been developed to watch and try to backtrack who is doing this. The feeling being that if they can find who it is that's roaming around and making these probes with these various worms and various other devices, if we can find out who they are, we can trace back to Pakistan, wherever they happen to be, and catch the bad guys.
The great fear, of course, is that this is al Qaeda or al Qaeda offshoots, who are using computers, which don't cost very much money, and the information that is already available and on the Web and the great power of university computer systems, which are regularly hacked into, to be their own weapons inside the war.
COSTELLO: Interesting, interesting, interesting. Michael Kirk, producer of "Frontline's" "Cyber Wars." That airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.
KIRK: You're welcome.
COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:44 Eastern Time. Here's what's all new this morning.
A U.S. soldier and six Iraqis have been killed in a suicide car bombing today in Baghdad. Two soldiers and 23 Iraqis were injured.
Filmmaker Michael Moore is vowing to have his new documentary released, even if he has to drive it from state to state himself. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is critical of President Bush. The Walt Disney Company has blocked distribution.
In money news, it looks like the futures are pointing toward a weak opening today. A couple of economic reports come out today -- weekly jobless claims and retail sales for April; unemployment rate numbers also out tomorrow.
In sports, a little pizzazz from the Mets' Mike Piazza. He broke Carlton Fisk's Major League record, career home runs by a catcher. The new record is now 352. And for what it matters, the Mets beat the Giants 8-2.
In culture, a rare discovery in Guatemala. Get this: Archeologists have found the tomb and the skeleton of a Mayan queen who lived 1,200 years ago. They found it while excavating a palace in the rain forest.
(WEATHER BREAK)
COSTELLO: Those are the latest headlines for you.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, wash your worries away. If only that were possible. First though, you have to know what tools to use and how to use them. We're talking pressure washers 101 with our expert from The Home Depot. That's coming your way next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Power tools today. We're talking about power washers, in fact. You've got all of this gook on your furniture, on your deck, on your car, that was sitting out all weekend, all winter. Now, it looks awful. You've got this furniture and you don't want to throw it away or clean it.
Dave White from The Home Depot joins us now. He says you can clean it with some power with some water.
DAVE WHITE, THE HOME DEPOT: That's right. You know, instead of using elbow grease, use some pressure and some power. And pressure washers, I know that you're a firm believer in using the pressure washer.
MYERS: I've already burned out two of them in my lifetime, so, yes.
WHITE: So, yes, you're using them. And they're great. And a lot of people don't really understand what they do, but it's pretty basic. I mean, there's a motor or an engine and a pump that force water from your garden hose at high pressure to do the cleaning work for you. And you can change the pressure depending on either the type of nozzle or tip you use. Or in some cases, it's an adjustable nozzle, so you can get more or less pressure.
MYERS: Let's start with the electric one, because these are -- the price point on these is much better, maybe $179, $200 or whatever it is.
WHITE: Yes.
MYERS: I was not happy with the one that I had. It just didn't give me a lot of pressure, not a lot of cleaning power. WHITE: Right. And that's a great point, Chad. Before you go buy one, you really need to think about, first of all, how you're going to use it, because you use it a lot, you're going to use it a couple of hours, you need to go ahead and get something that's got a lot of power and it's going to last a long time. A lot of folks...
MYERS: Or it's going to drive you crazy.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: It's going to take you six weeks to clean your driveway.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: By the time you get one end clean, the part you started on is dirty again.
WHITE: That's right. Yes, take a look at what you're going to do. Are you going to clean your -- maybe it's a small sidewalk. Maybe you're just going to do patio furniture, a car or a boat, you know, once every now and then. Then you know what? You don't have to go spend a ton of money. You want to look for one that's got maybe 1,500 PSI, something like that. That's pounds per square inch.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: And then you can work up from there. So...
MYERS: But you also said something about gallons per minute.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: Explain to the viewers about that.
WHITE: If you're going to go look for a pressure washer, and you want to compare apples to apples -- because there's a lot of factors -- you want to take the pounds per square inch, or the PSI, like this is 2,600.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: And then you look for the gallons per minute, which is the water flow.
MYERS: OK.
WHITE: And you multiply those two, and it gives you kind of a cleaning power.
MYERS: OK.
WHITE: So you take that number, and you can compare any one of these to see which one has the most cleaning power, because it's not just the pressure. It also is the volume, and the more volume or flow of water goes, the more cleaning power you have.
MYERS: Sure.
WHITE: And, again, if you're going to be doing large driveways and the siding of your house, you want something that's going to go, and you don't want to be there for all day long doing one little job.
MYERS: Right. Let's say we've already got one, we've already rented on, bought one, whatever, and you're doing to clean your deck.
WHITE: OK.
MYERS: You've got to be careful, because these things will blast a hole in your wood.
WHITE: That's a great point. And I've seen it happen. A lot of folks immediately go to the highest pressure nozzle or setting, and it will literally tear up wood if you're not careful. Here's what you want to do. Make sure that you start with the lowest pressure. For this one, for example, you just twist the nozzle to the low pressure setting.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: Start there, start your work, start back maybe four or five feet and work forward. And the closer you get, obviously, the more pressure you're going to have. And then if you need to increase the pressure, because it's not doing what you need, just increase it gradually.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: So, that you don't start out by really damaging the wood. You're going to be really upset.
MYERS: A lot of people clean their homes with them, too, the siding. And you can blow water right into your house with it if you get too close, you know.
WHITE: That's another great point. The angle really makes a difference.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: If you're spraying your siding and you're spraying up at a really steep angle, obviously you can get it right up in between your siding.
MYERS: You sure can.
WHITE: You can get it where your roof meets your soffet (ph) at your gutters. You don't want to get it up there, because the water can actually get into your attic. So, yes, you just have to use some common sense with that.
MYERS: You brought a bunch of products, and I'll be the first one to say that I never use them. I never hooked them up to my thing. I just use the power itself. WHITE: Right.
MYERS: But you say that using these actually helps out the cleaning.
WHITE: It does. You want to take basically any chance you can to increase your advantage over the dirt, all right? And you can get them for a lot of different things. I mean, there is house and siding.
MYERS: Yes.
WHITE: Car wash, you can get kind of all-purpose, which you may want to do if you're just going to be doing a lot of things in one day.
MYERS: Right.
WHITE: Deck and roof, like if your roof has a lot of mold and mildew on it, you actually can get roof cleaner.
MYERS: I'm not going up on a wet roof cleaning my roof, bud.
WHITE: No, I mean, if you have some scaffolding or if you're got a one-story. But the way to use these in most cases, both of these units actually will accept an outside detergent. This one you have...
MYERS: Yes. It actually comes out of here.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: If you put this in the bucket right in the hole.
WHITE: Right.
MYERS: And then turn it on.
WHITE: And then turn it on. It will mix it for you, because these are concentrate, and this unit will actually do the mixing. And all you have to do is you could actually hang this bottle off the side over there. You could even fashion your own hook or buy a hook. And then as you go along, it will siphon that through and take good care of it. Let it soak, and then...
(CROSSTALK)
WHITE: And then you apply that low pressure, use the high pressure to clean, and you're in good shape.
MYERS: Got to go, bud. All right, Dave, thank you very much.
WHITE: Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: I hope that helped. I hope you got some stuff cleaned this weekend.
Carol -- back to you.
COSTELLO: I'm going right out to get a power washer.
MYERS: Yes, I bet you are.
WHITE: Come see me. I'll take care of you.
COSTELLO: Oh, great. Did you see the new DAYBREAK cup? Did you see it?
WHITE: No.
MYERS: I did not.
WHITE: No, I haven't gotten one of those.
MYERS: Is it in?
COSTELLO: Well, you'll have to answer our questions.
WHITE: All right, I'm going to...
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: In fact, Chad will join me to name a coffee mug winner coming up. But first the latest headlines for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: All right, take it away.
MYERS: I saw Bob Seger about six years ago. He still puts on a great concert.
DAYBREAK coffee mug, time to give it away. Here were the questions from yesterday. Do not answer these. The ones for today are still coming up.
What number of troops is the Pentagon expected to keep in Iraq through 2005? That number was 138,000. And what film is Disney blocking Miramax from distributing? And that was, obviously, "Fahrenheit 9/11."
And the winner, Janice Norberg from Saint Petersburg, Florida. As they say, your cup is in the mail.
COSTELLO: Congratulations, Janice.
MYERS: Now the questions for today.
Ads for what major motion picture are going to be on the bases at the Major League baseball games?
And in a "Frontline" report, what was the year that cyber security was recognized as a national issue? What year was that cyber security recognized as a national issue? And we'll have those answers tomorrow.
COSTELLO: Oh, a tough one, OK. Well, thank you for joining DAYBREAK. That kind of does it for us, doesn't it?
MYERS: We are done.
COSTELLO: Wow! From the CNN global headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.
MYERS: See you tomorrow.
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