That pestiferous new worm making way around cyberspace, Blaster, has a single target in sight for the coming weekend. Security experts say the worm that can and has planted itself on thousands of computers will launch a massive data packet attack against Microsoft's Windows Update Website starting August 16, aiming to knock it offline entirely.
ZDNet and Reuters reported August 13 that Blaster has been spreading in cyberspace for three days and was still infecting machines by August 14, though not quite as quickly as when it first appeared last weekend.
The Windows Update Website, of course, is the one Microsoft uses to distribute update programs for the world's most widely used operating systems – including the patch to get rid of Blaster. Blaster targets computers with Windows XP, 2000, NT, and Server 2003, and Finnish security firm F-Secure told Reuters technicians were still trying August 13 to determine how broad the impact would be if and when the planned Blaster attack on the Windows Update site launches.
Computer experts tracking Blaster believe it infected far more home than business computers, spreading as it does through ordinary Internet connections rather than e-mail as such recent worms as MiMail have done.
But a sustained attack on the Windows Update site may not necessarily equal a general Internet slowdown, ZDNet said, especially with people "working overtime to patch their systems before Saturday," as Trend Micro president Raimund Genes told ZDNet.
