The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Microsoftis own HotMail service has been hit by the Code Red or Code Red II virus. Code Red and the version II variant are viruses that can infect Windows servers running Microsoft IIS 4.0 that have not been patched to protect against the exploit. The effect of being infected with Code Red is that the infected server can then be controlled by outside parties who can possibly compromise the data on the computer or use it to launch attacks against other computers. Windows servers that have been patched to plug the exploit are immune to either version of the virus.
According to The Chronicleis report, Microsoft may not have been taking its own medicine and allowed some of its HotMail servers to become infected. From that report:
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said servers had since been patched and that the company has been scanning its systems to make sure they were safe. "We continue to take it very seriously," Desler said. Desler said no customer data, customer e-mails or personal information appeared to have been compromised in the attack. He also said the company had had no reports of slowdowns because of the attack.
There is more information that we did not quote in The Chronicleis full story.
Thanks to Observer Justin for the heads up on this article.