Storm

I'm part of the 90% plus that hardly follows technical stories about the net, but reports of the Storm worm (like this one) have even/finally made it into the bubble of the likes of me. I have little sense of whether this is as serious as it sounds or is being hyped (To a beneath-a-rock-dweller like me, it's not clear just how serious they think this is at places like The Register e.g. here. Has Bill already helped us great unwashed out?)

Wikipedia notes that a recent article in PCWorld says that a network security analyst presented findings at the Toorcon hacker conference in San Diego on 20-Oct-07, saying that Storm is down to about 20,000 active hosts or about one-tenth of its former size.

A minor point, perhaps, but I find quite interesting the psychology behind the teasers used in subject headings designed to get people to open the infected files, such as:

A killer at 11, he's free at 21 and kill again!
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel
British Muslims Genocide
Naked teens attack home director.
230 dead as storm batters Europe
Radical Muslim drinking enemies's blood.
Chinese/Russian missile shot down Chinese/Russian satellite/aircraft
Saddam Hussein safe and sound!