Bloomberg

The Blaster Worm, and the Blackout

2003

On Aug. 14, 2003, a little after 2 p.m., power failed in eight northeastern U.S. states and one Canadian province, the result of power lines failing after coming into contact with overgrown trees. It coincided with the onset of a computer worm called Blaster that had appeared three days before. In the months that followed, security experts theorized that the worm might have slowed down computers that would have been used to prevent a blackout. A 2004 investigation finally concluded that this was not the case, and that the worm had no effect.

next slide previous slide