Number of viruses on student computers up

Recently, the GCSU technology help center – known as Serve – has experienced an influx of infected PC computers on campus. Many are located in faculty offices and labs, although some students are being affected as well.

The viruses Serve has most frequently encountered this semester include script-enabled viruses, according to James Carlisle, director of Technology Support Services.

“Generally you don’t want to turn that (script access) off,” Carlisle said. “For everyday (Internet) browsing you need to be able to go to Web sites that have script or Web applications. (Serve) is seeing a lot of Web site viruses where someone has virus protection up to date and all their (Microsoft) Windows updates. They think they have everything covered, but then they still go to this Web site and ‘boom’ . they get a virus.”

While there isn’t one certain virus plaguing the campus, a particularly malicious and deceiving one Serve has encountered is Antivirus Pro 2010. The virus charades as a legitimate antivirus software and misleads users by reporting false scan results and alerts.

“Luckily laptops have to pass through Impulse, and one of the requirements of Impulse is antivirus software protection and Microsoft Windows updates,” Carlisle said.

Impulse is the portal students pass through to access the GCSU wireless Internet network. While Impulse does not protect computers, it forces users to update their computer software in order to continue connecting to the GCSU network. Otherwise Impulse will lock the user out of the network connection.

Even with Impulse, however, laptops are susceptible to the script viruses. Serve has seen increasingly of late. And one of the worst case results is the notorious blue screen.

“My computer had a progression of problems,” said Katy Allmon, a junior middle grades education major. “It all led up to my computer blue screening. It was really scary because I hadn’t backed up pictures and schoolwork.”

While Allmon’s experience last semester was the result of hardware failure, the “blue screen of death” can be caused by a computer virus. Julia Allen, a junior fine art major, knows that all too well. She experienced the blue screen as a result of a virus.

“I turned on my computer and it went to a blue screen and it had a bunch of stuff on it that I couldn’t read and went away in two seconds. I was so angry I wanted to throw my computer against the wall,” Allen said.

Allen took her laptop to Serve, and it was returned to her, all files present, two days later.

“Once you get (the blue screen) you’re too far into trouble. Go to Serve and have (your computer) looked at to make sure you are doing everything right,” said Allmon.

Several simple precautions can keep a computer healthy and users happy. Install and continuously update anti-virus software, back-up files and perform Windows updates. Consider installing anti-spyware software, such as Spybot, which searches for spyware and malware. Know what anti-virus software is on a computer so there are no poser viruses. It is also advised to have more than one browser; a virus can infect one browser and not another which can help in removing it. Most importantly if you get a virus, take action immediately.

Posted by Rebecca Burns on Feb 12 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry