Paul Roberts

A Minnesota teenager will appear in federal court in St. Paul Friday to face charges stemming from the release of a variant of the virulent W32.Blaster Internet worm that ravaged computer systems worldwide earlier this month.

A widespread and dangerous Microsoft Corp. Windows vulnerability, spam e-mail messages and human frailty combined in recent weeks to produce a flood of new Internet worm attacks, according to experts at leading antivirus and e-mail security companies.

The Internet was quiet as the clock ticked past the scheduled start time for a massive, coordinated action by Microsoft Corp. Windows machines infected with the Sobig.F virus.

While it appears to have been thwarted, security experts on Friday warned of a possible attack or mass action by machines infected with the Sobig.F worm scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. GMT (or 3 p.m. EDT) on Friday.

Database giant Oracle Corp. is warning customers about security holes in versions of its Oracle 9i Database Server.

Antivirus companies warned Tuesday that a new version of the Sobig virus is rapidly spreading on the Internet, the latest in a string of Sobig computer worms to be released.

Microsoft Corp. Windows users infected last week by the W32.Blaster worm might appreciate the attention of a new version of that worm that cleans corrupted systems, then installs a software patch to prevent future infections.

A scheduled denial of service attack against Microsoft Corp.'s main software update Web site did not materialize Saturday, as computers infected with the W32.Blaster worm failed to find their target.