System administrators worldwide recently reported signs that another self-spreading program, or worm, had started to infect Linux systems. The worm's existence has given rise to two schools of thought. One, which feels that the worm will help in securing the system . . .
System administrators worldwide recently reported signs that another self-spreading program, or worm, had started to infect Linux systems. The worm's existence has given rise to two schools of thought. One, which feels that the worm will help in securing the system while the other is of the opinion that a worm is a worm after all and has to be eradicated. In this article we bring you the arguments put forth by the `cool about Cheese' school.

The Cheese worm appears to be different. Dubbed the Cheese worm, the program is basically a self-spreading patch. It enters servers that have already been compromised by a previous bit of malicious code--the 3-month-old 1i0n worm--and closes the back door behind it, adding security to the system.

Taken individually, the Cheese Worm is not a good thing. The last thing we need is another invasion by some nameless hacker using up our network resources.