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An overheating problem among drives used with new high-speed discs can destroy both the unit and the medium, manufacturer Pioneer is trying hard to avoid saying. Using soon to be available 4X discs for DVD-R and 2X discs for DVD-RW with the following drives is thought to be risky: DVR-7000 DVD recorder; PRV-9000 Professional DVD recorder; DVR-A03 computer drive; DVR-103 computer drive; DVR-A04 computer drive; DVR-104 computer drive. There is a firmware update available, along with the company's intentionally-vague bulletin

In addition to the items mentioned, several OEM units are affected, but Pioneer won't say which ones. You'll just have to contact your box builder and ask them if they have a fix.

Keep in mind that the discs currently on the market won't cause the failure. But you do have to apply the firmware fix before using the newer, faster ones to avoid the inconvenience of smouldering equipment.

News source: The Reg
View: The full story
View: Pioneer DVD-R/RW bulletin
Download: DVD-R/RW firmware updates

It is the ability of Slapper to create its own network, experts said, that makes this worm different from its predecessors, such as last year's Code Red worm or this summer's Scalper worm.

"Slapper is new in the sense that [infected machines] keep in touch with each other using their own network," said Russ Cooper, Surgeon General of TruSecure in Herndon, Va.

"Code Red made no attempt to coordinate hosts. All the infected hosts had similar instructions--to initiate a DOS attack against a particular address--but it wasn't a coordinated attack," Cooper said.

Unlike Code Red, however, the current version of Slapper circulating the Internet does not appear to be programmed to carry out attacks.

"My understanding is that there is not code to send instructions. [Slapper hosts] can receive notifications from other hosts--send and receive packets--but they can't really talk to each other," said Cooper.

Still, Cooper cautions that future variants of the worm might include the ability to send and receive instructions, making sophisticated attacks possible.

"One thing the attacker may have planned was to get this little worm in first, find out what hosts [it infects], then send out a variant that lets me send out instructions. I know we had 10 versions of NIMDA and 3 [versions] of Code Red within a couple weeks."

Others experts, however, worry that even in its current form, the Slapper worm can still pose a considerable threat to organizations that are infected, and that might find themselves the target of attacks from Slapper hosts.