News Computing Web worms: Code Red to Warhol By Ivars Peterson August 21, 2001 at 11:48 am - More than 2 years ago Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Striking on July 19, the so-called Code Red worm infected more than 360,000 computers throughout the world in less than 14 hours. The rapid rate at which the worm spread, without human intervention, vividly demonstrated how such a rogue computer program can interfere with the Internet. The Code Red worm failed in achieving its goal: overwhelming the White House Web site by attacking it with simultaneous messages from all the infected computers.