Leading government and industry groups working to protect the Internet held a joint press conference today to address the threat of the "Code Red" Internet Worm and to warn the public to take necessary preventative measures to combat its further spread. The groups warned that the Code Red Internet worm continues to pose a threat to users and is poised to strike again on July 31st, at 8pm EDT when a stronger version weaves its way through systems across the globe. They said it is likely that this Distributed Denial of Service could impact businesses and home users as the Internet slows down dramatically. The Code Red worm takes advantage of a flaw discovered in June in Microsoft's Internet Information Services software used on Internet servers. This flaw allows an attacker to gain full control of a server that has not been patched to correct the weakness. Most system administrators and users will not even know they have been compromised.
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