SectionsVirus slows campus
Rebecca Roman
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: News
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Computers on the Missouri State campus ran a little slower than usual last week when certain versions of Symantec Antivirus allowed a virus to affect the campus.
"This outbreak was limited to about 200 computers, mainly in classrooms and departmental computer labs that don't see a lot of regular," Kevin Piercy, coordinator of user support of computer services said. "The computers were disinfected and fixed by the Distributed User Support Specialists working for the various academic colleges."
Technicians needed to shut down the lab in Strong Hall for several hours in order to make sure that everything had recovered and was secure after some of the computers had problems.
"We try very hard to work proactively and protect students and their data, and no student data loss occurred that I know of," Piercy said.
In addition to Strong Hall, Temple Hall was the area most affected by the virus. The Geography, Geology and Plants Department, located on the third floor of Temple, found it hard to work while their computers were being repaired.
"Our computers were off for little over a day," said Tom Plymate, departmental head. "They were off Thursday and Friday, so at least for 24 hours."
The computers were still able to perform things like word processing, even though the internet connection wasn't working.
"Most of our communication is by e-mail, so it was hard to get around that," said Plymate.
Computers connected to a high speed internet source like Missouri State's can allow viruses to spread more quickly even though the university has invested in a system that quickly detects and stops outbreaks on the computers.
"The Computer Services Networking group was able to quickly determine that a virus outbreak was occurring and take steps to limit the scope of it," Piercy said.
Antivirus software for Window, Mac OS X and Linux are available for students to use on their personal computers and can be used to remove existing virus infections and protect their computer against any future infections. These are available upon request at the Open-Access Computer Labs in Cheek, Glass and Strong Hall.
"Their hard work and foresight, coupled with the univer-sity administration's investment in protective tools and technologies prevented this outbreak from being much worse," Piercy said. "They have protected us from many potential outbreaks in the past."
"This outbreak was limited to about 200 computers, mainly in classrooms and departmental computer labs that don't see a lot of regular," Kevin Piercy, coordinator of user support of computer services said. "The computers were disinfected and fixed by the Distributed User Support Specialists working for the various academic colleges."
Technicians needed to shut down the lab in Strong Hall for several hours in order to make sure that everything had recovered and was secure after some of the computers had problems.
"We try very hard to work proactively and protect students and their data, and no student data loss occurred that I know of," Piercy said.
In addition to Strong Hall, Temple Hall was the area most affected by the virus. The Geography, Geology and Plants Department, located on the third floor of Temple, found it hard to work while their computers were being repaired.
"Our computers were off for little over a day," said Tom Plymate, departmental head. "They were off Thursday and Friday, so at least for 24 hours."
The computers were still able to perform things like word processing, even though the internet connection wasn't working.
"Most of our communication is by e-mail, so it was hard to get around that," said Plymate.
Computers connected to a high speed internet source like Missouri State's can allow viruses to spread more quickly even though the university has invested in a system that quickly detects and stops outbreaks on the computers.
"The Computer Services Networking group was able to quickly determine that a virus outbreak was occurring and take steps to limit the scope of it," Piercy said.
Antivirus software for Window, Mac OS X and Linux are available for students to use on their personal computers and can be used to remove existing virus infections and protect their computer against any future infections. These are available upon request at the Open-Access Computer Labs in Cheek, Glass and Strong Hall.
"Their hard work and foresight, coupled with the univer-sity administration's investment in protective tools and technologies prevented this outbreak from being much worse," Piercy said. "They have protected us from many potential outbreaks in the past."
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