Please be aware of some new computer viruses that are causing major problems at Ithaca College and elsewhere.
W32/Sobig.F@mm
This virus affects Windows 95/98/Me/2000/NT/XP. It has only infected a small number of computers, but numerous people are seeing signs of it. People may receive large numbers of e-mail messages or “delivery failure” notices for messages they did not send. This is because the real sender of the infected messages “borrows” someone else’s e-mail address to send the messages. When e-mail servers that block the virus reject the messages, the rejection notice is sent back to the person whose e-mail address was borrowed.
Faculty and staff who regularly log in to their Novell account from their college computer are protected from this virus, as the Novell login process also downloads the latest virus definitions to your computer.
W32.Blaster.Worm or W32/Lovsan.worm.a
This virus affects computers running Windows NT/2000/XP/Windows Server 2003. We expect to see a high rate of infection from this virus on student computers. The main symptom is that an infected computer will automatically shut down or drop its network connection shortly after booting up.
To help combat this virus, Information Technology Services is posting information in the Ithacan, distributing flyers to the residence halls, and making CDs containing virus removal software available to students. The CD includes the FixBlast program to remove the virus and a software patch from Microsoft to repair the vulnerability that allows the virus to propagate. Students must then install anti-virus software or make sure that their anti-virus program is up-to-date.
Again, faculty and staff who regularly log in to their Novell account from their college computer are protected from this virus.
If you have questions or suspect that your computer is infected with these or any other viruses, please e-mail or call the ITS Helpdesk at 4-3282.
Contributed by Karen Sunderland
