The e-mail accounts of Ohio State faculty, staff and students have been under the attack of a computer virus – but a solution is now available.
The problem was discovered Saturday, as the Office of Information Technology noticed a 33-percent increase in the volume of mail processed. This resulted in slowed Internet traffic for everyone using the university’s network.
“As of 8:30 this morning, the anti-virus software was updated. As long as you have it updated on your computer, you should be okay,” said Robert J. Kalal, the director the OSU Information Technology Policy and Services.
Symantec updated its Norton brand of consumer security products to combat the problem presented by the highly-distributed, high-risk virus known as W32.Sobig.C@mm.
“Sobig” is a mass-mailing worm that creates a snowball affect by sending itself to the e-mail addresses on one’s computer and then replicating itself on each additional computer, according to the Web site, Symantec.com.
Kalal said the additional amount of e-mail didn’t create any problems for the university’s mail system, but it did affect individual users who have machines that run Microsoft Windows 95, 98, 2000, NT or XP. The large scale e-mailing occupies a computer and inhibits the machine from performing any other tasks.
Debbie Dey, a sophomore in political science, said the worm rendered her computer useless as it lost access to the Internet and her e-mail account. Faculty members and students affected by the worm were isolated from the network to prevent additional spreading.
“My laptop just froze up out of the blue, and I couldn’t do anything about it. During the process it was sending e-mails to everyone in my address book,” Dey said. “Who knows how many people the virus was sent to.”
Kalal suggested students get the Internet security update immediately. “Get it and keep it updated. It’s good for you and good for OSU because it keeps the amount of network traffic down,” he said.
According to the Symantec Web site, the infected e-mail falsely purports that Microsoft sent it, and the message will have a 59-kilobyte attachment that releases the worm into the system.
“The attachment is an executable file with an unusual extension like ‘.pif’ or ‘.scr.’ It’s called ‘document’ or ‘approved’ but it is a program,” Kalal said.
The worm virus does relatively little damage but its removal is moderately difficult. Kalal recommends students refer to the Symantec Web site for instructions regarding how to rid their computers of “Sobig.”
The software update is available, in addition to other public domain and site-licensed software programs, on the OIT Web site, www.softwaretogo.osu.edu.
