Despite the recent nationwide spread of the Nimda computer "worm" and other viruses, the College has remained largely unscathed.
According to Director of Communications Services Bill Brawley, Dartmouth was only marginally affected because of prior precautions.
"All of our Windows servers have had the appropriate security patches and updated virus security files applied," Senior Computer Support Analyst Peter Paplow said.
Such preventive measures were taken after August's Code Red worms. Nimda exploits the same software fault as Code Red.
Apple computers are generally immune to Nimda and other Windows worms, and Brawley said he has not "heard of any Macintosh problems."
In addition, Paplow said that reports of infection are being investigated.
Communications Services did detect some problems related to Nimda, including increased network traffic as the worm attempted to identify vulnerable computers.
The increase in traffic also resulted from the arrival of students on campus, particularly freshmen who received new computers, Brawley said.
Dartmouth can expect to see "more and more email viruses and bugs, particularly since we're now seeing more and more people using Windows," Brawley said.
He noted a recurrence of the "Funlove" virus, which deletes or overwrites Windows system files and first appeared in 1999.
Other worms attempt to exploit American sympathy for the victims of the recent terror attacks. One, disguising itself as a call for peace, sends itself out in an email with the subject line "Fwd: Peace BeTweeN AmeriCa and IsLaM," and asks users to vote against war. The worm, in the attachment "wtc.exe" deletes files from users' hard drives and sends copies to other email addresses.
Brawley said he has not heard any reports of the "peace virus" on campus, but says it "is pretty nasty from what I understand."
Nimda -- "admin" spelled backwards -- affects servers running Microsoft IIS software. The worm infects users who receive email attachments sent from contaminated computers. Infected web sites can also spread Nimda by prompting users to download an email file with the virus attachment.
Spread mainly as the email attachment "readme.exe," Nimda can infect a computer even if the attachment is not opened. Once it has found a host, the worm sends an infected email without a subject line to all the contacts in a user's address book and attempts to find computers on the local network that are vulnerable to attack.
In addition, the virus creates a user account with administrative privileges, opening the compromised computer to access by outsiders.
Symantec, maker of many popular antiviral programs, describes the worm as a "dangerous threat," ranking it a four on a scale of five.
To stave off Nimda and other worms and viruses, Brawley suggested that users purchase anti-virus software. He said that the software is "especially valuable for users using Windows," since most viruses affect computers running that operating system.
Brawley added that users who have questions about viruses and computer security should call the computer help desk at 6-2999. "I want to encourage people to think a little more broadly about prevention," he said.
Paplow suggested that users visit the Blitzmail bulletin "Computing-Viruses" for up-to-date information.
