posted 08-01-2001 03:08 PM            

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By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The reawakened ``Code Red'' worm disturbed the Pentagon (news - web sites)'s computer networks on Wednesday, and the main U.S. computer monitoring center predicted it would infect as many systems as it did in its first incarnation in July.

``The worm is an ugly thing,'' U.S. Army Major Barry Venable said in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs, where the U.S. military monitors its networks.

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Computers running Windows 95, 98 and ME are not vulnerable to the worm.

For infected computers, turning the machine off and then on gets rid of the worm but does not provide immunity from future infection. A free software patch is available at http:/www.digitalisland.net/codered/.

A media campaign to publicize the worm and its remedies may have helped lessen the impact this time, according to Tim Belcher, chief technical officer of Riptech, an Alexandria, Virginia firm that monitors attacks on corporate networks.

``What we're seeing right now is an hourly increase (in infection) between 75 and 100 percent, but at a much slower growth rate,'' Belcher said by telephone. ``There are less vulnerable hosts out there because of the patch -- less victims, meaning slower growth.''

Code Red, named for a caffeinated soft drink favored by computer programmers, scans the Internet for other computers to infect, and as more computers are infected the scanning gets more widespread and could slow Internet traffic to a crawl.

The worm can also deface sites, though in two of the three known variants no vandalism is apparent to computer users. In last week's hits, some U.S. government sites showed the message ''Hacked by Chinese!'' but the Chinese government said the worm probably did not come from China.

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