Computer security experts worked for 3 days hours to first deter- mine the cause of the network slowdown and then to restore the network to normal operation. It has been estimated that almost $100 Million in damage was caused by Mr. Chase's Worm. Mr. Chase said the Worm was experimental, and was accidentally released into INTERNET when a piece of software he had written malfunc- tioned. He apologized for any inconvenience he caused. The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is examining the legal aspects of the case and it is expected that Mr. Chase will be tried within in a year. Mr. Chase was released on his own recognizance. This is Scott Mason wondering why the Pentagon doesn't shoot worms instead of bombs at enemy computers. * * * * * The next day Steve Billings signed on to the SDSU/BBS from his small Mission Beach apartment. It was a local university Bulletin Board Service or BBS. A BBS is like a library. There are li- braries of software which are free, and as a user you are recip- rocally expected to donate software into the Public Domain. Con- ference Halls or Conversation Pits on the BBS are free-for-all discussions where people at their keyboards can all have a 'live' conversation. Anyone, using any computer, anywhere in the world can call up any BBS using regular phone lines. No one cared or knew if you were skinny, fat, pimpled, blind, a double for Christy Brinkley or too chicken shit to talk to girls in person. Here, everyone was equal. Billings 234 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX There was a brief pause. WELCOME TO THE SDSU/BBS. STEVE BILLINGS, YOU ARE USER #109 Steve Chose (12) for SERVICES: The menu changed to a list of further options. Each option would permit the user to gain access to other networks around the country. From one single entry point with a small computer, anyone could 'dial up' as it's called, almost any of over 20,000,000 computers in the country tied into any of ten thousand different networks. SDSU/BBS WINDOW ON THE WORLD NETWORK SERVICES MENU Steve selected CALNET, a network at Cal Tech in Los Angeles. Many of the Universities have permanent connections between their computers. LOGON: Billings014 PASSWORD: XXXXKIRKXXXX Again, there was a pause, this time a little longer. Now, from his room, he was talking to a computer in Los Angeles. There was another menu of options, and a list of other widely dispersed computer networks. He requested the SUNYNET computer, the State University of New York Network. From there, he asked the comput- er for a local phone line so he could dial into a very private, very secret computer called NEMO. It took Steve a grand total of 45 seconds to access NEMO in New York, all at the price of a local phone call.