2008 Woodie Awards
Virus attacks campus computers
By: James Chilton
Issue date: 3/1/07 Section: News
An Internet virus wreaked havoc across the Webster University network the week of Feb. 18, infecting every Windows-based computer on the main campus and spreading to several extended campuses, said Larry Haffner, vice president of Information Technology.
Haffner said the virus was probably introduced to campus the night of Feb. 15 and spread throughout the network the following week. He said by Feb. 19, as the virus hit its peak strength, IT realized it had a serious problem. Every computer - classroom, faculty and student-owned alike - was infected. The virus also spread to many of Webster's extended campuses across the country. Haffner said he was unsure if any of the international campuses were infected.
Stephanie Kiszczak contributed to this story.
The university's main anti-virus provider, Symantec, was taken off-guard by the virus. IT reported a more than two-hour wait on the company's help line, and the university did not receive any countermeasures for the virus until Feb. 22.
"They're still researching what it is and where it came from," Haffner said. "It took Symantec three or four days to figure out what it was."
Haffner said IT tried several other programs with different virus definitions early on and none could catch the virus. He said Webster regularly updates its virus definitions, and that in this case the anti-virus companies simply couldn't provide new definitions soon enough.
The virus has been difficult to classify because its effects vary from computer to computer. Some computers cannot access the Internet, some cannot access e-mail, some can read e-mail but cannot send it, some PCs show no ill effects at all, while others will not boot up. Not all of the symptoms are coming from just one virus, either, since the virus disables Symantec.
"It's possible that other people picked up extraneous viruses," Haffner said. "That was pretty consistent, people couldn't run the Symantec scan."
Haffner said the virus was probably introduced to campus the night of Feb. 15 and spread throughout the network the following week. He said by Feb. 19, as the virus hit its peak strength, IT realized it had a serious problem. Every computer - classroom, faculty and student-owned alike - was infected. The virus also spread to many of Webster's extended campuses across the country. Haffner said he was unsure if any of the international campuses were infected.
Stephanie Kiszczak contributed to this story.
The university's main anti-virus provider, Symantec, was taken off-guard by the virus. IT reported a more than two-hour wait on the company's help line, and the university did not receive any countermeasures for the virus until Feb. 22.
"They're still researching what it is and where it came from," Haffner said. "It took Symantec three or four days to figure out what it was."
Haffner said IT tried several other programs with different virus definitions early on and none could catch the virus. He said Webster regularly updates its virus definitions, and that in this case the anti-virus companies simply couldn't provide new definitions soon enough.
The virus has been difficult to classify because its effects vary from computer to computer. Some computers cannot access the Internet, some cannot access e-mail, some can read e-mail but cannot send it, some PCs show no ill effects at all, while others will not boot up. Not all of the symptoms are coming from just one virus, either, since the virus disables Symantec.
"It's possible that other people picked up extraneous viruses," Haffner said. "That was pretty consistent, people couldn't run the Symantec scan."
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