Apparently there is a new variant of the Blaster worm that actually downloads Microsoft’s patch for the Windows vulnerability and then deletes itself when the machine it has infected reboots.

Can you say viral marketing? How about push technology? Anybody remember when the Next Big Thing in the browser wars was “push technology”? Microsoft had channels and Netscape was going to do up Netcaster. Microsoft’s channels sucked, Netscape never released Netcaster, and the whole thing died with a whimper. People already have push technology — it’s called TV. The whole reason we use the Internet is to avoid push technology.

Still, I can’t help but take a long, hard look at an Internet worm that downloads and installs a patch from Microsoft’s web site and then deletes itself on reboot. What if a Microsoft employee wrote this sucker with Bill Gates’ blessing? And even though it might be causing some unwanted Internet traffic, does it cause any damage? Is it providing a service?

And does anybody remember Darwin’s theory? Survival of the fittest. Maybe the best Internet worms will inherit the Earth. That reminds me. I’ve got to go see what Slashdot is saying about this.