Virus infects college computers

By Nisar Lashkar

lash0011@algonquincollege.com

Nine million computers worldwide - including those on the Algonquin College’s network - have been infected with Conficker, a malicious computer virus that is causing global concern.

Algonquin College was first hit by Conficker at the end of January. This coincides with a global outbreak of the virus in mid January, where millions of computers across corporate, educational and public networks became infected. A week later, Algonquin’s network was hit again. On both occasions, the virus disallowed any attempts made by students and instructors trying to log onto blackboard, the school’s online educational and resource archetype.

Conficker, known also as ‘Downadup’, is a worm virus that targets a bug in Microsoft’s Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 operating systems. After bombarding a network’s domain controller with intrusion attempts, Conficker proceeds to reach a malicious server, from which it downloads additional viruses onto the infected computer. 

Stephen Abraham, Chief Information Officer for the Information Technology Services (ITS) department, along with a brigade of technicians, have been combating the virus since the first levels of intrusion - their primary concern being the students.

“It’s not acceptable to us that blackboard is not available, and webmail is not available. Our students need them to be able to do their work. It’s quite frustrating,” said Abraham.

“We are going to be working on this, as long as we need to, to get it resolved.”

The ITS department became aware of the virus after many students reported problems with logging onto blackboard.

Crystal Casey, a second year Office Administration student, had her computer and USB flash drive infected with Conficker during its first intrusion into the school’s network. She brought her problems to the ITS desk, where after a quick diagnosis, her computer and USB flash drive were inoculated.

“I truly appreciate them saving my flash drive, and the great advice they give,” said Casey. “The ITS department was really helpful and professional.”

Other students have yet to visit ITS for help.

“All our assignments are presented to us on blackboard. I’m really glad I downloaded all of them earlier,” said Brian Vaughn, a second year Computer Programming student.

“Although I have not been to ITS as of yet, I know people with positive experiences there. I have no complaints regarding them. They seem to be on the ball with fixing the network.”

The virus attacked the network for the second time on Feb. 2, 2009. All throughout that day, students and faculty members did not get to log onto blackboard. The ITS department was notified about the problem by 11 a.m., and by 5 p.m. that day, blackboard was back online.

“Students were coming in indicating that there was some blackboard related problems logging in,” said Udit Gunaydin, an ITS technician. We’ve confirmed the logins, brought it to our networking team, and they’re currently investigating the reasons behind why blackboard is not functioning.”

Although the blackboard issue has surpassed, Stephen Abraham warns of other possible network related issues due to the infection. According to Abraham, the school may experience a slowdown with the network or ‘N’ drive, and students and staff may not be able to access their Algonquin College webmail.

 For some students, webmail is a chief concern. 

“That will definitely cause me a problem, the webmail. I don’t use the N drive, I keep everything in a flash drive, but the webmail, that’s gonna screw me,” said Vaughn. “I don’t have another way of reaching the people in my class. I use webmail as much as Blackboard.”

Laila Embonu is a second year Communications student who is also a victim of Conficker. Although her work has been relatively uninterrupted, she is still worried about losing webmail, and possibly any other services.

“I need webmail to communicate with teachers and students from school. Especially now, during the bus strike and with mid terms closing in, electronic communication is important for us,” she said. “Not all of us can come to school, until the bus service resumes.”

So how did the school catch the virus? Conficker is known to be spread via USB flash drives. The ITS department suspects the virus to have originated from a student’s USB drive. After intruding a computer, Conficker’s binds itself to a file on the computer called ‘services.exe’. The virus then creates hundreds of new domains, rendering it extremely difficult to stop.

Microsoft has recently updated their Malicious Software Removal Tool in attempts to destroy Conficker. This tool can be downloaded from Microsoft’s update server.