MyDoom meets its doom, but viruses continue to run rampant online

By Rory Sa

The reign of MyDoom is over.

The e-mail virus MyDoom flooded inboxes this year from late January to early February. When recipients clicked on the attachment, it infected their computers, grabbed any e-mail of the computer it could find and began sending itself to each and every e-mail address it found.

While new infections of MyDoom have trickled to a crawl, it won’t be long until the next major virus spreads through the Internet.

“ Never a day goes by, we don’t get several virus messages,” Kelly O’Boylan said.

O’Boylan, an analyst for the help desk at Fresno State’s Information Technology Services, said the help desk does its best to prevent viruses, but there’s only so much they can do.

If a computer from either Fresno State or CVIP seems to be sending out infected e-mails, the help desk tries to contact the user.

They tell the user about the virus and show them how to remove it. If the user is having difficulty removing the virus, the help desk will offer to fix the computer.

“ If we can’t get a hold of them we may disable their net access, hoping they’ll call us,” O’Boylan said.

They can also limit the size of attachments that can be sent to listservs. Listservs allow various campus departments to send incoming e-mails to everyone within the department. This also means that listservs deluged with spam share the bounty with everyone on the list.

“That’s mostly useful to prevent viruses from getting through,” O’Boylan said. “Viruses are usually about 100k, so it makes listservs reject message over 100k.”

O’Boylan has three tips for keeping your computer safe from viruses: Get an antivirus program, keep it and your operating system (OS) up to date and do not open attachments you’re not expecting.

He warns users that just because they installed Norton’s Antivirus, or a similar program, five years ago doesn’t mean their computer is safe. To be effective, antivirus programs must be constantly updated.

It’s equally important for users to keep their OS up to date. “It’s relatively easy,” O’Boylan said.

“ If you haven’t [updated] before, the first time it’ll take several hours. But once it’s up to date you can check once a week, eliminating the possibility of getting many of the viruses,” he said.

The single most important tip is not to click on attachments without scanning them with an antivirus program and not opening them if you’re not expecting files from someone.

“ It’s not enough to get one from someone you know, because majority of viruses spoof addresses,” O’Boylan said. Spoofing refers to when a virus or spammer changes the “From” address to a different e-mail in order to mislead recipients.

It is ultimately the responsibility of users to protect their computers.

“ You wouldn’t let your dog loose and not be responsible if it bites something. If a computer gets infected, sends junk, and causes administrators to deal with the messages you’re going to be responsible,” he said. “Be a good virtual neighbor.”