U students and faculty may have noticed a bombardment of strange e-mails last week.
The SoBig.F virus, the fastest growing computer virus in history, spread rapidly across the Internet before stopping short of completing its intended purpose, an attack on a Microsoft Web site.
“The mail servers were overwhelmed last week,” said Steve Scott, U security specialist at the Information Security Office.
The virus is transmitted as an attachment to e-mail messages. When the attachment is opened, the virus continuously sends itself to all the e-mail addresses stored on the computer of the specific individual who opened it.
“I easily received 100 e-mails a day,” said Sheri Young, Administrative Assistant for the Union. E-mail servers around the world, including those at the U, experienced delays.
Now, the situation seems to be under control.
Scott said that perhaps 5 percent of the computers on campus were infected with the virus. “Some people don’t know better than to open attachments,” he said.
While it has caused some delays in the e-mail servers on campus, the effects could have been more dramatic.
“It was [mostly] a nuisance.” said Fred Esplin, vice president for university relations.
The primary purpose of the virus was to set up a network of computers that could be used to send out spam-or unsolicited e mail advertisements-according to a www.lurhq.com/sobig-e.html.
The virus also records keystrokes on certain Web sites like PayPal and E*Trade. The keystrokes contain personal information like credit card numbers, social security numbers and user names and passwords. “They can use this information for identity theft,” Scott said.
There are still machines on campus that are infected, but the virus has been stopped from sending information or receiving any updates from its authors. The U has made arrangements with a software company to provide anti-virus software to students at a discount. The software will be available next week on the U software-licensing Web site at www.osl.utah.edu.