08.29.01
Red Code, Blue Code
So I’m sitting at my machine at work, and software begins crashing left and right. I’ve got 6 or so windows open and by time I have to reboot entirely they’re all fozen and the machine won’t respond at all. I start the arduous reboot process when my phone rings.
“Hello, is this Ross?”
“Yes…”
“Did you just loose your network connectivity?”
“I think so. My apps started crashing and I just now rebooted.”
“Okay. This is Greg from DTS. We shut down your port. We’ll be coming upstairs to your machine.”
“Can I ask why you why you shut down my network connection?”
“Well… We think you’ve got the Code Red virus.”
The internal networks here had gotten hit, twice with the Code Red virus. Once on the outside machines, and the second time on the inside. The whole IT department is pretty skittish these days about this stuff. But there’s just one problem. The Code Red virus attacks the Index Server component of Microsoft’s IIS web server, running on WinNT.
Item the first: I’m not running the Index Server.
Item the second: I’m not running IIS or any other web server.
Item the third: I’m not even running WinNT, my laptop has Win98!
Apparently some piece of software somewhere had decided that it found a Code Red packet coming from my machine and started setting off bells and alarms in …Houston! (AKA location of the parent company) Houston told the Portland people to shut me down quicker than you can say ASAP.
They did, and the techs came up to my cube. One said, “Huh. That’s weird.”
That last line, by the way, is a direct quote.
They said, if they could figure out what was going on, they’d let me know. Otherwise they’d just turn the port back on.
Gave me a good reason to take a lunch break.