Randy Barrett, author of the story “Worm strikes Linux”
published by ZDNN November 30 and subsequently picked up by
News.com, the Register, and MSNBC, says “we will print a
correction”.
In e-mail to Tracy Reed, Randy Barrett wrote:
“Tracy: My appologies for causing a panic. A source
characterized the attacks as “wormlike,” and I went ahead and used
the term. My mistake. Also, the story was NOT about Linux, that was
the headline and I didn’t write it. Post this where you like. We’ll
print a correction.”
Barrett was responding to the following complaint by Reed:
“It wasn’t a worm! A worm is something totally different. I
humbly request that you print a correction. The security hole is
real, discovered 4 months ago, and this sort of thing happens
regularly with computer software. It was not especially newsworthy.
A *real* worm on the other hand, would have been. But because it
made the news and the word “Worm” was used I am getting emails from
all sorts of people asking about this new Internet worm, invoking
visions of the infamous Morris worm from 10 years ago which crashed
a lot of the Internet’s computers. You greatly overstated the case
and it is causing a panic.”
Tracy Reed posted the e-mail exchange to the linux-biz list
today.
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