News & Events: Press Releases

August 01, 2001 KEYNOTE NEWS SPECIAL - CODE RED WORM July 19 Internet Slowdown Was NOT Due To The Worm We feel it necessary to set straight a rumor that has been circulating that the July 19 Internet slowdown was due to the Code Red worm. That is incorrect, and we are concerned about the dissemination of incorrect information. According to Keynote's measurements and expert analysis, the slowdown on July 19 was very clearly due to the train wreck and resulting fire in the Baltimore tunnel (see our report on this incident dated July 19, which can still be found at http://www.keynote.com/downloads/baltimore_train-071901.doc), and cannot be attributed to the worm. The evidence and logic show that: 1. The resulting backbone slowdown was specific to those backbones with high-speed connections running through the tunnel, including the peering relationships of those backbones with others, and the peering connections were concentrated on the East Coast. If the slowdown had been due to the worm, it would not have been selective as to backbones and geography but would have affected all backbones and the Internet as a whole, across geographical boundaries. Evidence of this effect was found on Keynote's Internet Health Report (www.internetpulse.com), that tracks backbone peering performance in multiple geographic locations. 2. There was no exponential ramp-up of performance degradation during the day or preceding days that would have coincided with the proliferation of the worm, but a sudden spike in performance that coincided with the time of the train wreck. 3. Consider: If the worm had such a dramatic effect on the Internet on July 19, why hasn't it had a similar effect now, when it is much more widespread now than it was then? We have seen no effect on performance over the past couple of days. As reported previously, Keynote has not seen any effect of the Code Red worm on Internet performance during the month of July. UPDATES Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, August 7, 2001, 3:00pm PDT Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, August 6, 2001, 4:00pm PDT Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, August 3, 2001, 3:00pm PDT How Much Worm Traffic Will It Take To Affect Internet Performance, August 02, 2001, 5:00pm PDT Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, August 1, 2001, 4:00pm PDT Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, July 31, 2001, 8:00pm PDT Code Red Worm's Impact on Internet Performance, July 31, 2001, 5:30pm PDT