RTFA: http://www.itnews.com.au/News/60752,storm-worm-bot…

The Storm worm botnet has grown so massive and far-reaching that it easily overpowers the world’s top supercomputers.

That’s the latest word from security researchers who are tracking the burgeoning network of Microsoft Windows machines that have been compromised by the virulent Storm worm, which has pounded the Internet non-stop for the past three months. Despite the wide ranging estimates as to the size of the botnet, researchers tend to agree that it’s one of the largest zombie grids they’ve ever seen — one capable of doing great damage. “In terms of power, the botnet utterly blows the supercomputers away,” said Matt Sergeant, chief anti-spam technologist with MessageLabs, in an interview. “If you add up all 500 of the top supercomputers, it blows them all away with just 2 million of its machines. It’s very frightening that criminals have access to that much computing power, but there’s not much we can do about it.”

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6979891.stm

Investigators say the virus that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey had probably been present in a pipe on the Pirbright laboratory site.

Health and Safety Executive findings, given to the BBC, identified biosecurity lapses at the nearby site.

It said the pipe, which runs from pharmaceutical firm Merial to a plant operated by a government-run lab, may have been damaged by tree roots.

Merial said it could not comment until the report was officially published.

It said it “cannot speculate on pipes or anything else”.

It is believed the pipe may have been damaged by tree roots before flooding pushed virus traces to the surface.

It is not known how the virus found its way on to farmland a few miles way following the flooding on 20 July.

Damn! These are sensitive systems, people.