Net attack inevitable. Net attack inevitable: This article in USA Today is one of the more thorough assessments I've seen… the current attacks, while damaging, are better seen as probes than as the final deliverable: “In the future, some worm will take 'the vast majority of Internet connectivity down for a day or two,' predicts Ed Skoudis, a security expert with International Network Services. 'The attackers haven't even unleashed the big guns yet. The worms we're seeing are damaging, but nothing as nasty as they could write.'” If spammers can pay virus-writers, then so can the enemies of open communication, particularly if this is tied in with physical attacks on other resources. Systems in cultures where people do not buy executable code from the actual creators are all vulnerable too. The zombie army sleeps right now, even as its numbers increase. The defense? Aside from controlling your own machines, and encouraging your neighbors to do so, we need to comparamentalize the network to contain damage when needed. (By the way, I've kept an AOL address over the years, and even though this has been massively exposed I haven't seen SoBig, autoresponders or even an increase in spam there… the article's comments on AOL protections are consistent with my own experience.) They close with two paragraphs on what Microsoft is doing to strengthen consumer machines. [JD on MX]