Posted at 10:55 a.m., Monday, July 30, 2001

Virus due to clog Internet traffic

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Government officials are urging users of Microsoft Windows 2000 and NT operating systems to guard against the "Code Red" worm, which could slow the Internet.

The worm, which spreads the first 20 days of every month, is predicted to start its damage again tomorrow at 8 p.m. EDT, according to the government-funded Computer Emergency Response Team.

The worm defaces English-language Web sites with the phrase "Hacked by Chinese," then causes the infected computer to attack the White House Web site, trying to knock it offline.

The White House has taken steps to thwart the attacks, but infected computers swamp the Internet with their assault.

A software patch to protect computers from the virus is available from Microsoft's Web site. The worm doesn't affect computers using Windows 95, 98 and Me.