When James Taglione ’05 checked his housemate’s AOL Instant Messenger profile last week and saw a link saying it contained his picture, he clicked on it.
“He’s linked to other stuff like that before, so I didn’t think it was weird or anything,” Taglione said.
However, once he clicked on the link a series of windows popped up asking him to confirm a download. Thinking this was just part of viewing the picture, he agreed.
“After that, I got the same link put in my profile telling people I have a picture of them and I can’t take it out,” he said.
A rash of programs have been infecting the Internet lately and inserting themselves into the ubiquitous messaging service, causing them to spread over college campuses nationwide. Fairfield’s Computing and Networking Services has been busy fielding requests from students for help with these problems.
“There has been an influx of issues with regards to these so called ‘Instant Messenger’ viruses with students here at Fairfield University,” said Steve Dailey, academic support manager for CNS. “These new spyware infections have not directly impacted the student network as a whole, but it has caused a great deal of frustration to the students who infected their machines.”
He says that in addition to the “picture” virus, one called RealPHX has also infected many computers on campus by spreading from the AIM profile.
“This spyware can have many effects on computers, from changing an AIM profile as mentioned above, or changing someone’s Internet Explorer homepage for example,” he said.
Updated virus and system software, according to Dailey, can stop these infections, but students need to take the time to do them.
“I thought my computer was up to date with the virus software and everything the school had given us, but I guess it wasn’t,” said Taglione.
Dailey explained that students must do some work to keep their computers clean since the virus software will not always recognize the newer programs.
“The RealPHX spyware uses a security hole in Internet Explorer that many students probably have not updated. Students need to use the Windows Update service on their computers and install all critical updates that are applicable to their individual machine,” he said. “Norton AntVirus cannot delete system processes. A quick Internet search can provide many helpful instructions on how to delete such spyware from your machine.”
Taglione was able to fix his machine by asking friends for help.
“I found someone else who had the same virus before and was able to give me a link which fixed it,” he said.
CNS realizes that many students have never been taught the proper way to keep a computer virus-free and are currently working on a way to bring that information to everyone.
“Computing and Network Services is currently working on developing on-line resources for students, and well as printed material on how to keep their systems clean,” Dailey said. “We are also looking at additional solutions that would be installed on the student network to help lower the amount of viruses infecting student machines. This virus support structure will be further developed throughout the remaining academic year and beyond.”
This help will come too late for Taglione, but he now thinks he knows enough about viruses to prevent any from taking over his programs again.
“Now I’ve learned never to click on links from my friends unless I know it’s not going to cause any problems with my computer,” he said.
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