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American Morning
Internet Stability Threatened by Code Red Worm
Aired July 31, 2001 - 09:07 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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, joining me now here at the smart screen from CNN Interactive, Dan Sieberg. He was with us yesterday. He's got more for us now on this "Code Red" worm. Now, what's the latest right now on how this is spread and where it is right now?
DAN SIEBERG, CNN INTERACTIVE: Right. Well, we've been watching it for about the last 24 hours more closely because tonight is when they're expecting it to really start to spread. It's got a time frame on it, almost like a time stamp of when it's going to start hitting the Internet and spreading out. It's about 8:00 Eastern Time tonight is when they expect it to start spreading.
So today is almost a waiting game. Computer experts differ on how much it's going to spread, how many people have put the patches in place to stop it from spreading. It really depends on how many people have braced themselves for it.
HARRIS: You know what I'm curious about, is there any significance in the time that it's going to start, at 8:00 P.M. on August 1, or whenever it is?
SIEBERG: Well, that's midnight time Greenwich Mean Time. So that's where they've, August 1, that's the beginning of the month. That's the beginning of this cycle, this next cycle for this worm. That's why the date is important.
HARRIS: All right, got you. All right, now show us -- you said you had a map here that shows how it spreads.
SIEBERG: Sure, this is a map that can show how quickly this particular worm can spread. It's very quick in the way that it gets through the Internet. It doesn't go through e-mail, it goes out through the Internet, spreading itself, replicating itself. And you can see how quickly it's going to go across the world. Assuming it manages to infect these computers and that they haven't updated their system. That's an important message.
HARRIS: OK. All right, now, I've also heard a rumor that it's as simple as if you just reboot your computer if it is on your computer, just be rebooting it that removes it?
SIEBERG: Well, that's a component of it. Any network administrator or corporation that has this particular combination of server software needs to reboot their computer. That's the first thing they need to do.
HARRIS: Yes.
SIEBERG: This worm only exists in memory on the computer. It's not on the hard disk. So by rebooting it, you're taking it out of the system. However...
HARRIS: You kill it in the memory.
SIEBERG: Right. It could get infected again. That's why you need the patch.
HARRIS: Let me ask you about one other rumor we heard, as well. Is it true that because it does affect the big company computers that this may end up affecting ATMs or gas station pumps and things like that, that even though they may not be the computer itself but they are run by computers that are back at the big companies?
SIEBERG: I would be surprised if that happened. It's more of a network issue and an Internet issue where Web sites are affected, people who are trying to get into their favorite site, e-commerce and that sort of thing. That's what's going to be affected. It's going to slow down the Internet, slow down the traffic.
Assuming it's that bad. A lot of network people may have installed the patch and it may not be as bad as they expect. It really depends.
HARRIS: All right, let me ask you real quickly without giving away any company secrets, are we ready here at CNN?
SIEBERG: We are actually because we don't run the particular software that's vulnerable.
HARRIS: OK.
SIEBERG: So although Internet traffic could be slowed down and we could be affected that way, our site is going to be fine because we're not vulnerable to this particular worm. So we're OK.
HARRIS: All right, you heard him folks. It's on you now, Dan.
SIEBERG: It's on me now, yes.
HARRIS: Dan Sieberg, thanks much. Appreciate the expertise.
Now, to learn more about this worm and where to go to get some of these software patches that Dan was talking about, the info is right at your fingertips, there at that Safe Web site, CNN.com, of course. AOL keyword is CNN.
Thanks, Dan.
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