Chaos

The rapidly evolving Sasser worm tore across the Internet Tuesday, hitting corporate and home computers and stoking fears worse may be to come.

First detected over the weekend, the worm has already infected, by some estimates, over 1 million PCs. Among its victims are banks, travel-booking systems, European Commission offices and Britain's 19 coast guard stations.

"We've had to go back to plotting on paper charts rather than using the computer mapping system," said a British Maritime and Coastguard spokeswoman.

Search and rescue operations however have not been affected since Sasser first attacked its computers Tuesday.

Unlike a trojan or virus, Sasser infects vulnerable PCs without any action by the user. The first inkling of an infection may involve the computer mysteriously rebooting or the Internet connection slowing dramatically.

Full Story @ Wired