Virus writers say "You have three days!".
This weekend, a worm broke out on the Internet that was new and interesting in a variety of ways.

• It attacked a vulnerability that had only been patched for three days.
  
• It damaged data and scrambled hard drives.
  
• It attacked a firewall product, not an Operating System.
  

The article put out by the firewall vendor itself has the details, but it attacked users of BlackICE and RealSecure firewall products. Users who had taken steps to secure their machines were brutally attacked and targeted. The act of securing their machines had made them less secure. Recent viruses and worms that have been on the loose have not been as aggressive as this one, and all of us should take a stern lesson from this weekend's attack. The Internet is not only an unsafe place, but it is a battleground, and nothing short of daily vigilance can protect your system from its danger.