In the past couple of weeks, ASU found a worm in its Apples. And its PCs, too.
A virus known as SOBIG.F has infected computers all over the country, flooding Web sites and clogging up the Internet.
The virus appears to have originated from a Phoenix Web service provider.
ASU is one of its many victims and administrators say the worm will probably be in ASU computers for a few more weeks.
"I'd say that 70 percent of e-mail traffic in the country is this worm," said William Lewis, ASU's chief information officer and vice provost.
Lewis said the virus first showed up during the second week of August.
The virus also hit other universities. Half the dorms at the University of Arizona lost their network connections, said Lucy Carruthers of the Research Support Center for Computing and Information Technology at UA.
ASU's electronic post office, EMMA, has a filter to keep out unwanted spam. Lewis said the virus backed up the filter and caused a seven-minute delay in receiving e-mails from EMMA.
"We can't get ahead of it," Lewis said.
Easynews.com, a Phoenix-based provider of newsgroup services, said it had complied with a subpoena regarding an account used to distribute the virus.
The company said the account appeared to have been created using a stolen credit card.
The virus arrives as an e-mail attachment with subjects like "Thank you," "Wicked Screen saver" and "Details." The e-mail may even show up as a notice about the virus itself. The document attached ends in PIF or SCR.
When a user clicks on the attachment, it appears to do nothing, but it actually scans the user's e-mail addresses. The virus then uses the addresses to send out several copies of itself, labeled as e-mails from the user.
"It's turning every machine into a spam-generating machine," Lewis said.
Lewis said there's no way to tell by looking at a computer if it is infected. To avoid the virus, computer users should not open any unknown attachments and should perform a virus scan on every attachment received.
Another measure is to install a firewall on the computer, protecting the machine from other people entering it without the user's knowledge.
Lewis said any time a user is on the Internet, the computer is open to other people. A firewall will monitor the comings and goings and look for any suspicious patterns.
ASU students can access virus scans for free at www.asu.edu/antivirus and firewalls by searching for "personal firewall software" at www.asu.edu.
Lewis said hundreds of viruses hit ASU every year. He said students should take preventative measures.
"If you don't know what it is," he said, "don't open it."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach the reporter at lindsay.butler@asu.edu.
