Internet Worms: Walking on Unstable Ground

Each day, worms are becoming a more common occurrence on the Internet. As the incidents increase, we must be thinking proactively in order to lessen the negative effects these worms have on the Internet community. It is important to remember that the livelihood of many businesses is based on an Internet presence. The monetary losses incurred by businesses relating to these worms are hard to measure. Some estimate losses for each occurrence to be around $1 billion. 1 The true value of damages may never be known. Many companies prefer not to publicly report losses since they do not want to diminish customer confidence in their services. So far, we have been lucky. There has not been a worm that caused widespread permanent damage to computers. Everything we have seen so far has been related to some sort of denial of service. In order to prepare for the future, we need to be thinking ahead to beat worm writers before they release the next worm onto the Internet. The worms we have seen so far have been fairly sloppy. Most propagate slowly, giving system administrators a chance to catch up on their security practices prior to any major damage taking place.