Analyst firms have begun to weigh in with initial estimates of the damage done by the SQL Slammer worm, the virulent program that spread quickly throughout the Internet a week ago.
On Thursday, London-based market intelligence firm Mi2g said that the worm caused between $950 million and $1.2 billion in lost productivity in its first five days worldwide. That puts the worm at No. 9 on the company's list of the most costly malicious code, behind the likes of the Code Red worm, with its average of $2.6 billion in productivity loss; the LoveLetter virus, with $8.8 billion; and the Klez virus, with $9.0 billion.
"For all the hype of Slammer, it is not as dire as many people think," said D.K. Matai, CEO of Mi2g. "Just in case you think the sky fell down on Saturday, it didn't."
The estimates are the first to try and measure the effects of the latest worm to hit systems. The SQL Slammer worm spread throughout the Internet late on Jan. 24, and the sheer quantity of data produced by infected servers clogged the electronic arteries of company networks, downed banks networks and ATMs and slowed some people's access to the Internet.
News source: c|net
