SEATTLE (Reuters) - It only took 10 minutes for the SQL Slammer worm to race across the globe and wreak havoc on the Internet two weeks ago, making it the fastest-spreading computer infection ever seen, researchers said on Tuesday.
The worm, which nearly cut off Web access in South Korea and shut down some U.S. bank teller machines, doubled the number of computers it infected every 8.5 seconds in the first minute of its appearance, said a computer security research group led by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis.
By comparison, the Code Red worm -- which came 18 months earlier -- only doubled every 37 minutes.
