It appears that the alarming rate with which the SQL Slammer Worm moved over the globe now "[makes] it the fastest-spreading computer infection ever seen, researchers said on Tuesday."
In order to clarify some earlier "facts" that I bounded around, it appears that the Worm "nearly cut off Web access in South Korea", and "doubled the number of computers it infected every 8.5 seconds in the first minute of its appearance." according to a source here.
Another article here claims that "Security experts and government officials agree that the unprecedented disruption of services by the SQL Slammer worm last week exposed the inherent flaws in the Internet and the domino effect that a few unprotected servers can have on the rest of the network."
Evidently, some lessons must be learned from this, and some new policies put into place. The Internet was designed to withstand the effects of a Nuclear War, but may not be as invulnerable to the effects of malicious programming as we would like.
I am also sure that, like the case of the "Melissa" virus, the people responsible for this will be found, and no doubt sent to jail for a very long time.