Feb. 5, 2003 A team of network security experts in California
has determined that the computer worm that attacked and hobbled
the global Internet 11 days ago was the fastest computer worm
ever recorded. In a technical paper released today, the experts
report that the speed and nature of the Sapphire worm (also
called Slammer) represent significant and worrisome milestones
in the evolution of computer worms. Computer scientists at the
University of California, San Diego and its San Diego
Supercomputer Center (SDSC), Eureka-based Silicon Defense, the
University of California, Berkeley, and the nonprofit
International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, found that
the Sapphire worm doubled its numbers every 8.5 seconds during
the explosive first minute of its attack. Within 10 minutes of
debuting at 5:30 a.m. (UTC) Jan. 25 (9:30 p.m. PST, Jan. 24) the
worm was observed to have infected more than 75,000 vulnerable
hosts. Thousands of other hosts may also have been infected
worldwide. The infected hosts spewed