October 2, 2003

CAMPUS

The Norwich Guidon

NU computers hit with national Blaster worm

By Shawna Anapolsky
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

Infected with nationwide worms and viruses in early August, Norwich University's computer services department worked together with a specialized group of students to repair and patch the damage as quickly as possible. Despite Microsoft Corporation's announcement about a hole in the operating systems of Windows NT, 2000 and XP, the Blaster worm and Nachi virus spread throughout the campus, infecting computers and systems in much the same way it did in other parts of the nation and the world.

Jonathon Fredritz, a 21-year-old business management major, said his computer would shut down without warning. Fredritz was one of many students who experienced problems related to Blaster and Nachi.

Philip Susmann, Vice President of Technology and Strategic Partnerships, suspects that approximately 80 percent of student computers and 40 to 50 percent of administrative computers were affected.

"The Blaster worm finds a hole in this (operating system) code," Susmann said. "If you didn't patch your computer, it then infects the computer, and then it looks for other computers to infect."

Susmann explained that the key difference between Blaster and Nachi is that rather than choosing computers to infect "at random," Nachi "attempts to find other computers that may be affected in the same network domain."

Blaster and Nachi caused a great deal of network traffic in dorms, forcing computer services to shut down the entire network so repairs could be made, Susmann said.

To effectively deal with the problems, NU computer services sought the help of the on-campus student organization Association for Computing Machinery (NUACM).

"We worked in collaboration with the computer services to patch PCs and disinfect them," said Shanek Fernando, 21, a computer science major and chair of NU-ACM.

Fernando said 14 students put in a total of 150 hours working on each of the computers in every dormitory.

The workers first downloaded the necessary software patch and then used the necessary programs to seek out and delete worms that may have been on each computer.

Most on campus are pleased by the way Computer Services and NU-ACM dealt with the computer problems in such a quick and orderly way.

"I think they did a good job handling it," said Ross Abromwitz, a senior peace war and diplomacy major. "They got hit with something hard, right in the very beginning of the year."

To avoid similar problems from occurring in the future, Fernando encourages people to keep antivirus software "up to date."

She said computer services is providing a McAfee anti-virus program that will be available on their website at no charge.

The Norwich Guidon is a twice-monthly student newspaper distributed at Norwich University. It provides laboratory experience for students in the Communications program. Claims asserted by letter writers, editorials and other articles do not represent the positions of Norwich University. The Norwich Guidon welcomes signed letters to the editor. They should be no longer than 300 words. Unsigned letters will not be printed, but names may be withheld upon worthy request. All letters are subject to editing for length and good taste. Mailing address: The Norwich Guidon, Communications Center, Norwich University, Northfield, VT 056632. www.norwich.edu/guidon. If you have any questions or comments about the paper, please contact Professor Ken Bush at kbush@norwich.edu.