The April 1 date, which is hard-coded into the worm, has people spooked because of two things: The size of the infected PC pool, and a lack of information about what the hackers intend to do once those victimized machines try to reach hacker HQ.
According to some estimates, as many as 12 million PCs have been infected with the worm since it first struck late last year. Symantec, however, recently pegged the number of currently infected systems at 3 million, while F-Secure Corp. said it was more likely in the 1 million to 2 million range.
It’d be pretty great if it didn’t do anything—it’d sort of be the IT version of the high school-tested prank of freeing three pigs labeled One, Two, and Four in the hallways. Then again, I don’t think it’s too funny when people put potatoes in car tailpipes, so maybe I just don’t have a sense of humor.
