Wired magazine is planning to publish the underlying code for the Slammer worm that slowed Internet traffic to a crawl in January, raising questions over whether such articles inspire future hackers or educate potential victims.

The article, which will be published in Wired's July issue due out on Tuesday, details how the Slammer worm, also known as "SQL Slammer", spread rapidly through the Internet on Jan. 25, shutting down Internet service providers in South Korea, disrupting plane schedules and knocking out automatic teller machines.

The article includes the underlying software code for Slammer.

"The thing to note here is that the people who are in a position to wreak havoc on the Internet don't have to read about it on Wired," said Blaise Zerega, managing editor of Wired, which covers a range of subjects centered around technology.

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