Six months later, the tools came to the public's attention when Yahoo, ZDNet, CNN and other high-profile Web sites suffered similar attacks. Dittrich analyzed both 1i0n and the earlier Ramen worm and found significant improvements in 1i0n's code. He worried that worms, like many other hacker tools, are evolving and getting better. With worms exponentially spreading, the Internet could become a much less friendly place, said Mixter, the German hacker who created the Tribe Flood Network, the DDoS tool used in the attacks on Yahoo and others a year ago. We don't analyze them because there is too much data.
Worms spread by doubling and doubling again.
Robert Graham, chief technology officer with firewall maker Network ICE, thinks that could clog up the works of the Internet. And worms are set to get even more prevalent. With about 30 new vulnerabilities uncovered every week, such automated code for cracking systems has almost infinite potential, said Neohapsis's Shipley. Plug in an exploit and let it go. Tux Imagine that.