Webmail viruses attack, students advised to use caution
Students may have noticed their Utah State University WebMail inboxes filling up with messages labeled “virus” in the last week.
Help Desk supervisor Stephen Funk said there have been four or five viruses hitting the Internet over the last two months. The virus searches for e-mail addresses in an infected computer and sends itself to those addresses, said Bob Bayn, associate director of network and computing services at USU.
“It has affected a good portion of campus and a good portion of computers that connect to campus through the modem pool,” Funk said. “It’s hard to say when it’s going to end, because there are so many out there circulating.”
Bayn said USU has a machine that scans WebMail for spam and viruses. If a potentially infected message has an attachment, he said, the attachment is removed and the message is sent on labeled “virus.” He advises students not to open these messages.
“I’ve never heard of an actual instance when something that wasn’t a virus was blocked as a virus,” Bayn said.
Funk said USU catches the majority of the e-mail viruses, but students should still be cautious.
“As soon as we think we have a good handle on it [viruses], find a way to get around it and the problem starts all over again,” Funk said.
Students should hesitate to open unexpected attachments, even if they know the sender, Funk said. If a friend has an infected computer, he or she may not be aware a virus is attaching itself to e-mail messages.
“The rule of thumb is, if you’re not expecting an attachment, don’t open it, even if you know who it is from,” Funk said. “You may want to reply back and ask them if they intended to send you an attachment.”
Opening an infected message does more than hurt the individual who opened it, Bayn said.
“If someone does click on it, their computer becomes infected and becomes a distribution site for that virus,” Bayn said.
Bayn said students should also be wary of messages claiming to be virus updates from Microsoft.
“Those are always viruses. Microsoft does not send updates that way,” he said. “Believe the warning tags and don’t click on anything that you’re not sure what it is. No matter how enticing that message is, don’t believe it.”
Bayn said USU offers free downloads of McAfee VirusScan to all students who connect to the USU network, whether their computers are on campus or off. It is important to keep the software up to date, he said.
“If you installed the software a month ago and haven’t updated it, it’s not going to protect you from any viruses that came out this month,” Bayn said.
-heidithue@cc.usu.edu