Earlier this week the “”Navidad”” virus was unintentionally sent via e-mail to hundreds of students on a visual arts mailing list. The e-mail’s subject line read “”Grad Show!”” and contained the attached file navidad.exe, which is a virus that distributes itself through address books in Microsoft Outlook Express.
According to ResNet Coordinator Erik Strahm, when downloaded, the virus prevents any application from running.
“”When the user tries to open an application, a screen pops up with a smiley face,”” Strahm said. “”Fortunately, computers infected with the virus are 100 percent repairable.””
Nich Ziesmer, senior residential computing consultant, explained that the outbreak was completely random.
“”It is pure chance that the UCSD sender got the virus,”” Ziesmer said.
Strahm said that the Navidad virus that was sent to people on the visual arts list did not originate on campus.
“”Usually someone creates the virus somewhere else and almost all viruses are from other countries,”” Strahm said. He added that the UCSD sender did not intentionally propagate the virus.
“”Microsoft Outlook Express is very susceptible to viruses because the viruses can piggy-back themselves on the files the system uses,”” Ziesmer said.
He also said that computer viruses spread like viruses in humans and can be designed to do almost anything. He said the Navidad virus is very well-designed.
“”It’s practically ingenious,”” he said. “”It readily distributes itself to millions of computers. It is unfortunate how effective the virus is.””
The Navidad virus is one of many viruses that have been spreading around campus. The “”Snow White”” and “”Romeo and Juliet”” viruses are some of the others.
Ziesmer said the best way for people to protect their computers from viruses is to buy an anti-virus program such as Norton AntiVirus. He said another problem is that people do not keep their anti-virus programs updated.
Ziesmer added that students who read their e-mail though popmail.ucsd.edu or telnet are at less risk, because file attachments will not be opened automatically, as they sometimes are in older versions of Microsoft Outlook Express.
“”Look twice before opening files,”” Ziesmer said. He explained that students should be cautious about opening files from senders they do not know.
According to Strahm, the problem with viruses is that they grow exponentially when they are distributed through mailing lists.
Strahm said that although viruses are already commonly found on campus residential computers, there has been an increase in the last few weeks. Two years ago, the “”Melissa”” virus infected computers and was the most devastating virus on campus, Strahm said.
There have been no reported actual costs or damage to computers infected with the Navidad virus on campus yet, other than the time spent removing the virus because people were temporarily unable to use their computers.
Students whose computers have a virus or have problems should call the ResNet office at (858) 822-2800. The office is open Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Information about computer viruses, those that present the top threats, removal procedures and anti-virus software can be found at http://www.norton.com/avcenter/
