Does the internet have 24 hours to live?

The internet could come to a grinding halt tomorrow night - and all because of the Code Red worm.

At least that's what George Bush, the FBI and Microsoft are warning.

Code Red propagates itself by scanning for systems with a vulnerability in Microsoft's IIS software. Infected servers then launch a denial of service (DoS) attack against the White House's public website on a programmed date.

The first attack occurred on 19 July, with another scheduled for 1 August.

The danger is the weight of traffic from the propagation and DoS attack will degrade internet performance so badly it will effectively stop functioning.

Although reports vary, some experts suggest up to 350,000 computers have so far been infected by the malicious worm.

The CERT labs at Carnegie Mellon University claim the spread has the potential to "disrupt business and personal use of the internet for applications such as ecommerce, email and entertainment".

However, as President George Bush, the FBI and Microsoft joins forces to warn about the impending digital doom, skeptics are saying that talk of the end of the internet should be taken with a rather large pinch of salt.

Rob Rosenberger, editor of virus site vmyths.com, said he was amazed at the panic being generated.

He told silicon.com: "The policy seems to be, that if we generate enough hysteria, then the internet will survive."

David Emm, product marketing manager at Network Associates, said Code Red was of serious concern, but warnings had been blown out of proportion.

"We don't advise alarm," he said. "Alarm doesn't do anyone any good."

Ian Peacock, security consultant at Defcom, also said the warnings have gone overboard. "There are other vulnerabilities in IIS web server that are probably equally widespread, like that extended unicode vulnerability," he claimed.

"A lot of people will have patches now. The threat seems to be fading out," said Peacock.

The FBI will repeat its warning about the future of the internet at a press conference this evening. At 20:00(ET) - 01:00(BST) on Wednesday - we'll find out the truth. But whatever happens, the doom mongers will claim victory.

vmyths.com's Rosenberger predicted: "When Code Red is wiped out and the internet survives, then everybody is going to congratulate themselves on their success at warning people."