Experts warn of new Code Red strain

It`s back new and improved.

The Systems Administration, Networking and Security Institute (SANS) said in an advisory on its Web site that the latest variant of the computer virus seems to leave a "back door" in infected systems that makes them easy for an intruder to infiltrate.

Code Red surreptitiously infects computers running Microsoft's Windows NT or 2000 operating systems and its IIS Web server software and then makes infected machines scan the Internet for more victims.

If the new worm spreads as quickly as last week's Code Red outbreak, hundreds of thousands of Web sites could be left open to computer hackers. Machines that had already been "patched" with Microsoft software aimed at thwarting the virus were not vulnerable to the new Code Red, computer experts said.

The SANS Institute said several sources reported that the number of probes to their home networks had increased and that a new worm, similar to Code Red, started circulating Saturday.

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Source: CNet