Alert! Virus Attack!

BY MAGGIE ZIEGLER

"You don't understand. I have months of work on there!" Emma Span, SM '03 was going door-to-door Tuesday night searching for a zip disk. A computer virus had arrived in her e-mail inbox the day before and she needed to back up some important files before it was too late. " Campus was buzzing last week with talk of Romeo and Juliet, a computer virus also called "W32.Blebla," that hit campus starting last Monday at midnight. Since it arrived, hundreds of computers have been affected. "I estimate 40 people in each college had problems," said Ryan Barrows, a Computing Assistant in Morse. Alice Liu, a CA in Saybrook estimates that she's dealt with 15 people personally and has heard of another 10-15 cases in her college.

COURTESY SYMANTEC

The way the Romeo and Juliet Virus works is simple. You receive a seemingly harmless from someone who you probably know (At least they know you well enough to have your e-mail address in their address book). The subject line is randomly selected from a list of about ten pre-programmed possibilities ranging from "Warning: Virus Warning!" to "LOL! :0)" to "Merry Christmas." Inside the e-mail is an attachment that, when downloaded, causes different things to happen. Eoghan Casey, Yale's Information Security Officer said exactly what the virus does is yet to be determined since a complete analysis has not been done yet. What has appeared to happen on the students' computer is, after downloading the attachment, the virus infects any files that you attempt to open. The files can then be difficult to find because they are relocated to the recycling bin under a different name or impossible to open or operate. Some students were surprised to find that the virus had infected their computer because Microsoft Outlook automatically downloads all attachments, and, in the absence of anti-virus software, infected their computers without warning.

ITS has been working on making anti-virus software available to the students and faculty since December because viruses have been a problem throughout this year according to David Davies, the manager of Student Computing. "We hurried to make the software available once the W32.Blebla virus hit Yale, but the license was already in place," said Davies. What CAs and ITS hope to stress most to students is that the software will only protect them if it is updated regularly. "Most everyone who gets a virus on campus could prevent it by spending five minutes a week updating their anti-virus software and not opening attachments, "said Barrows. "People think they download Norton and they're protected until the end of time. Well Norton does not protect against any new virus," said Casey. Casey also warns that it is especially important to have awareness because these e-mails are often from people you know.

Even though the virus originated outside of Yale, according to Casey, it spread quickly within the University because the virus is classified as a "worm" and, as a result, sends copies of itself to every name in the infected computers' address books. In fact, heavy e-mail traffic may be one of the biggest headaches caused by this kind of virus. One student who was "inconvenienced" by the virus said that one of his TAs received 19 e-mails from him in one day because every time he tried to open any file, the virus sent a copy of itself to everyone in his address book. 
Romeo and Juliet has not only affected Yale, but has also reached many other universities across the country. The University of Pennsylvania and Harvard have both reported that hundreds of computers had been affected with the same virus over the course of the last week. Indeed one Yale student says that he was receiving multiple e-mails not only from fellow Yalies, but also from friends at other schools across the country. On U-Penn's campus damage and inconvenience was kept to a minimum since the virus only affects computers using Windows 95, 98, and ME and also only affects Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. The same was true on Yale's campus because of the widespread use of Eudora for e-mail.

Romeo and Juliet is also not the only virus Yalies have to guard against. Two additional viruses, the Anna virus and the Funlove virus are currently circulating. Funlove, according to Casey, does not propagate through e-mail. Instead, it finds machines through the network that have been configured to share files. "If you don't put a protective mechanism in place like a password, anybody can read or write information to that hard drive," according to Casey. Essentially, a person could place a virus in your shared folder and another person could copy that file and become infected. Further, if you open that file, your computer will become infected also.

The newest virus that began circulating aggressively this past Monday is the Anna virus. Experts predict that this virus will have effects similar to the "iloveyou" virus of last year. It's a comparable virus, but according to anti-virus technologist, Alex Shipp, "it's spreading twice as fast." Five hours after the first virus was detected, 2,900 copies had circulated. The Anna virus also seems to be from a friend, and includes what looks like an attached picture of Russian tennis star, Anna Kournikova. When you download the attachment the virus does not damage the computer it infects, but it does tie up e-mail servers by spreading itself around rapidly. Although this virus only has three subject lines (making it easier for system administrators to identify and filter), "it is highly poymorphic," according to Vincent Weafer, director of Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center, "which means it changes its signatures to hide itself from anti-virus software.

In an effort to protect themselves and their computers, Yale students have been taking advantage of the University's offer of Norton AntiVirus software. As of Monday evening, over 250 downloads had been initiated from on-campus sites according to Davies, but "Norton is a mere tool to help you avoid viruses-it does not magically protect your machine from all electronic ills." The CAs around campus are hopeful that students will be more careful with their e-mail and keep their anti-virus software up-to-date. Students should not accept unexpected attachments even from people they know, and should make a point to update their anti-virus software every week to save themselves headaches later. The administrators at ITS have the same hope. Davies had this to say: "Viruses are not a new problem. I hope the publicity surrounding last week's virus problem and the Norton AntiVirus site license cause people to behave more responsibly in their electronic lives."

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