Chapter 2 The Worm Turns

by Ryan Russell and Tim Mullen

Here we go.

I wander down the hall to tell my wife that I’ll be working all night. She tells her friend on the phone to hold on a sec.

“Why? What happened?” she says.

“A new worm,” I say.

“Aw crap, not again. Is it a big one?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to look at it first.”

She tells her friend that I’m going to be up all night, and that I’ll probably be useless tomorrow. I hear her voice trail off as I wander back down the hall to my home office.

Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living, and I know they really don’t care, I tell them “computer stuff.” If that’s not enough for them, I clarify with “computer security stuff—hackers, viruses, worms….” About then, their eyes glaze over, ...

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