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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Fast-Spreading Internet Worm Crashes Computers

Aired August 12, 2003 - 07:47   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.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a Web worm, kind of like a virus, attacking Windows anyway. Andy Serwer is off. Christine Romans is not. She is "Minding Your Business" this morning for us here.
Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: It sounds icky, doesn't it?

HEMMER: A Web worm, yes.

ROMANS: A Web worm. It spreads itself. A virus needs the help of a human to spread it, but a Web worm kind of crawls through the system. It scans around looking for other vulnerable computers, and then it spreads itself. So, you're seeing this. Yesterday this cropped up.

It's spreading quite quickly, the experts are saying. And it's called, among other things, "Lovesan," "Blaster" or "MS Blaster." Its target is Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It will crash your PC and it will attack Microsoft. In fact, the worm contains some code, Bill, saying, Billy Gates, why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software.

So, whoever created this one really has had somewhat of a sense of humor.

HEMMER: Can you avoid this if it's going to get in your own system?

ROMANS: There is patch at microsoft.com. You can take a look there.

But experts have been predicting it for about a month now because of another worm that we had seen about a month ago. So, hopefully, you know, corporate computers or -- tech support has been sort of aware of it and has put a patch on. But if it affects your home computer, it could crash. Take a look at the Microsoft Web site and look for the patch there. You know, they what always say -- tech support always says "reboot."

HEMMER: Reboot, and then call us back.

ROMANS: Yes, exactly.

HEMMER: Not at CNN, though.

ROMANS: Right.

HEMMER: Our tech support is a plus.

ROMANS: Crack staff, right.

HEMMER: Another note tied to Microsoft: a patent infringement deal. They're going to have to pay some -- a pretty good chunk of money.

ROMANS: Yes, absolutely. A Chicago jury ordered a $520 million judgment against a company for patent infringement -- $520 million is a lot of money.

HEMMER: Sure.

ROMANS: That's a half a billion dollars. But the company will appeal this.

But, you know, keep in mind, when you talk about big settlements or big issues involving Microsoft, you know, this company has $49 billion in cash. That's more than...

HEMMER: In cash.

ROMANS: In cash sitting in a bank. That's more than, you know, some small countries.

HEMMER: Sure.

ROMANS: Many small countries combined don't that kind of money.

HEMMER: Yes.

ROMANS: So, we'll watch to see if it affects the stock today. But $520 million is what the Chicago jury ordered, patent infringement.

HEMMER: Well, quickly on stocks, you mentioned it. The Fed meets today.

ROMANS: It does. At 2:15, we'll get the results. No one is really expecting the Fed to do anything today.

HEMMER: No movement?

ROMANS: But we'll closely be watching the kind of verbiage that the Fed uses, simply because we've had such a wild ride in the bond market over the past couple of months. What will the Fed say about that, if anything? What will it say about how strong the economy is?

Today, stocks are looking up a little bit. But yesterday was the quietest day of the year.

HEMMER: Was it really? ROMANS: It really was. The quietest full day of the year, so...

HEMMER: OK, give you a bit of a breather.

ROMANS: Oh.

HEMMER: That's if we can understand the verbiage that comes out from the Fed.

ROMANS: Exactly, exactly.

HEMMER: Good luck. Christine, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Crashes Computers>


Aired August 12, 2003 - 07:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a Web worm, kind of like a virus, attacking Windows anyway. Andy Serwer is off. Christine Romans is not. She is "Minding Your Business" this morning for us here.
Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS: It sounds icky, doesn't it?

HEMMER: A Web worm, yes.

ROMANS: A Web worm. It spreads itself. A virus needs the help of a human to spread it, but a Web worm kind of crawls through the system. It scans around looking for other vulnerable computers, and then it spreads itself. So, you're seeing this. Yesterday this cropped up.

It's spreading quite quickly, the experts are saying. And it's called, among other things, "Lovesan," "Blaster" or "MS Blaster." Its target is Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It will crash your PC and it will attack Microsoft. In fact, the worm contains some code, Bill, saying, Billy Gates, why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software.

So, whoever created this one really has had somewhat of a sense of humor.

HEMMER: Can you avoid this if it's going to get in your own system?

ROMANS: There is patch at microsoft.com. You can take a look there.

But experts have been predicting it for about a month now because of another worm that we had seen about a month ago. So, hopefully, you know, corporate computers or -- tech support has been sort of aware of it and has put a patch on. But if it affects your home computer, it could crash. Take a look at the Microsoft Web site and look for the patch there. You know, they what always say -- tech support always says "reboot."

HEMMER: Reboot, and then call us back.

ROMANS: Yes, exactly.

HEMMER: Not at CNN, though.

ROMANS: Right.

HEMMER: Our tech support is a plus.

ROMANS: Crack staff, right.

HEMMER: Another note tied to Microsoft: a patent infringement deal. They're going to have to pay some -- a pretty good chunk of money.

ROMANS: Yes, absolutely. A Chicago jury ordered a $520 million judgment against a company for patent infringement -- $520 million is a lot of money.

HEMMER: Sure.

ROMANS: That's a half a billion dollars. But the company will appeal this.

But, you know, keep in mind, when you talk about big settlements or big issues involving Microsoft, you know, this company has $49 billion in cash. That's more than...

HEMMER: In cash.

ROMANS: In cash sitting in a bank. That's more than, you know, some small countries.

HEMMER: Sure.

ROMANS: Many small countries combined don't that kind of money.

HEMMER: Yes.

ROMANS: So, we'll watch to see if it affects the stock today. But $520 million is what the Chicago jury ordered, patent infringement.

HEMMER: Well, quickly on stocks, you mentioned it. The Fed meets today.

ROMANS: It does. At 2:15, we'll get the results. No one is really expecting the Fed to do anything today.

HEMMER: No movement?

ROMANS: But we'll closely be watching the kind of verbiage that the Fed uses, simply because we've had such a wild ride in the bond market over the past couple of months. What will the Fed say about that, if anything? What will it say about how strong the economy is?

Today, stocks are looking up a little bit. But yesterday was the quietest day of the year.

HEMMER: Was it really? ROMANS: It really was. The quietest full day of the year, so...

HEMMER: OK, give you a bit of a breather.

ROMANS: Oh.

HEMMER: That's if we can understand the verbiage that comes out from the Fed.

ROMANS: Exactly, exactly.

HEMMER: Good luck. Christine, thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.




Crashes Computers>