By Chelon Dyal
Students who have checked their e-mail lately might have noticed a warning from the University Communications office about a new worm infecting BYU computer systems.
The worm, a self-replicating and self-containing computer program, has been sent by someone outside of BYU but looks like it came from a campus e-mail address, a scam known as spoofing.
The worm is spoofing BYU return addresses and sending spam with malicious software attached to other BYU addresses, as stated in the university e-mail.
Nyle Elison, product manager for BYU?s IT department, said the worm can do anything from destroying the user?s data to collecting information on shopping or Internet browsing.
Worms, written programs, are used for the emotional or financial benefit of the author, Elison said. They may be created just for the challenge or in an attempt to get money.
?Fortunately, most are written for the challenge,? Elison said in an e-mail interview. ?Viruses and worms are a multi-billion dollar industry ? that is to say, companies spend billions of dollars every year combating them.?
The worm does not just affect campus computers, but also personal computers used on campus. In fact, Elison said that personal computers are the primary targets of theses types of programs.
The IT department has taken several steps to prevent worms and viruses from spreading on campus.
?The Office of IT attempts to eliminate as much of these types of problems before the end user even sees them,? Elison said.
The IT department also functions to protect university data, such as grades, web content and personal information, Elison said. And the job has been made a little lighter by recent anti-virus and anti-worm laws that have been passed.
Elison said it also has helped that law enforcement now actively seek out the authors of viruses and worms.
All of the attempts on the part of the IT department to prevent worms and viruses have been paying off. The number of viruses and worms that are stopped before reaching the end user has increased dramatically.
?We are stopping approximately 80 percent more viruses and such than we were twelve months ago,? Elison said. ?However, this isn?t a battle that can be fought on one front. Everyone needs to participate.?
Elison listed four main steps students can take to protect themselves. They can install anti-virus software and keep it updated, install operating system updates routinely, install a personal firewall and be suspicious of anything downloaded from the Internet.
More information about protection from viruses and worms can be accessed from the virus protection product page on the IT Web site.