[LINK] Amen to Code Red

[Grant Bayley]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20779.html

Code Red hysteria -- $8.7 billion in damage estimated
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 01/08/2001 at 18:55 GMT

The Reuters wire service is reporting that Code Red has already cost an
estimated $1.2 billion in damage, and may top out at an incredible $8.7
billion when its bitter reign of destruction finally ends.

Citing one Michael Erbschloe, vice president of research at IT efficiency
clearinghouse Computer Economics, Reuters reckons that the cost of
patching systems and losses in worker productivity will skyrocket.

We hate to point out that patching systems is what IT staff do, so we
don't quite see the dreadful loss of productivity here. One might as
easily say that police lose productivity when they have to interrupt their
doughnut runs by investigating crimes, or that doctors lose productivity
when they have to abandon the back nine to treat patients.

And as for the cost of clearing the worm from an already-infected system,
this is accomplished by re-booting. It's hard to imagine billions going
down the drain here, either.

Erbschloe previously estimated the damage from the Love Bug at $8.7
billion and the damage from the Melissa virus at about $1 billion. "In my
opinion, $8.7 billion [in damage from Code Red] is not ludicrous," Reuters
quotes him as saying.

And thus Reuters got the sensationalist quote they wanted from an
'expert'.