Internet Worm Warning to Be Issued by Officials

In an unprecedented show of force against an extremely virulent Internet attack, government and private officials today will implore worldwide organizations to protect themselves from the “Code Red” worm.

Representatives from the White House, FBI, Microsoft Corp. and others have decided to take the step in the face of one of the largest ever dangers to the Internet. The worm, similar to a virus, could cause widespread slowdowns and sporadic outages.

“The Internet has become indispensable to our national security and economic well-being,” said Ron Dick, head of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, an arm of the FBI. “Worms like Code Red pose a distinct threat to the Internet.”

Along with posting various warnings on their Web sites, government officials and representatives from Microsoft will hold a news conference today to publicize their efforts.

The government routinely works with private companies to issue warnings about new hack attacks and viruses, but never before have they made such a high-profile stand.

While the actual infection rate is unknown, it is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers. In just the first nine hours of its July 19 outbreak, it infected more than 250,000 systems.