It was smart and pervasive, a right jolly old stealth, And I laughed, when I saw it, in spite of myself. A look at the dump of that invasive thread Soon gave me to know we had nothing to dread. The next day was slow with no network connections, For we wanted no more of those pesky infections. But in spite of the news and the noise and the clatter, Soon all became normal, as if naught were the matter. Then later that month while all were away, A virus came calling and then went away.
CERT provides a clearinghouse for information about computer break-ins and security.
When a new security hole is discovered, CERT quietly informs system administrators about the hole and the 'fix' to plug the hole. This number only doubled from the previous year, whereas the number of computers on the net jumped by far more than that. Both the original CERT and the federal government want in. The more we depend on computers, the more we depend on computer programmers and builders. Morris's worm brought the net down for a day.