The dreaded Code Red computer virus left the Internet largely unscathed today with some experts congratulating themselves on catching the worm before it turned and others dismissing it as a false alarm.
Computer experts saw no immediate effect from the Code Red worm that was expected to begin winding its way through Web servers from the stroke of August 1st, but they cautioned that more time was needed to assess its full impact.
The worm - a benign sort of software virus that affects computers running certain types of Microsoft's operating systems - has struck twice before, hitting hundreds of thousands of computers.
But millions of computer users appeared better prepared this time, courtesy of a free software patch that catches the worm - named after a caffeine-laced drink favoured by computer programmers.
"It's something like the Y2K bug because everyone was prepared," said Mr Ravi Venkatesam, vice president of operations at Atesto Technologies in California.
"Because everyone protects themselves it turns out to be a dud. But that's a good thing because it means that everyone has protected themselves."
The US government, which appeared to be the target of previous manifestations of the virus, said it had not been affected and Asian governments told a similar story.
"Currently all government and private-sector watch centres are not reporting any unusual activity associated with the Code Red virus," said Mr Ronald Dick, director of the US National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC).
The Japanese government's agency for IT security said its saw no signs of damage by Code Red, as did Hong Kong's Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre.