CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat Dance freshman Nina Conrad holds up a copy of an anti-virus CD that was provided by ResComp. The CD provides the ability to remove the virus from infected computers, and fixes a security flaw in Microsoft Windows.

130 without access after virus infects student computers

It has been a week since UA shut down Internet access to over 260 student computers, and still over 130 residents can't surf the Web.

The quarantine, conducted by the Security Incident Response Team, was the university's attempt to contain several strains of the Blaster worm, a computer virus that has spread throughout university departments and residence halls.

No notification was given to those users who were kicked off the network.

"I was frustrated because there was no advanced warning," said dance freshman Nina Conrad, owner of a quarantined computer. "We came home and all of a sudden the Internet didn't work."

This could have been prevented if everyone was running automatic Windows updates ...

÷ Ted Frohling, member of response team

The Residential Computing department recognizes that people have not been notified, but they are working to get the word out.

"There was no notification to people in advance," said Steve Gilmore, director of residential computing. "But we did identify users and we are doing our best to contact them."

Gilmore couldn't say exactly how many quarantined residents have been contacted, but only 136 have been registered "clear" of the Blaster worm.

For some students who know they have been quarantined, getting back online has not been so easy.

"We re-registered yesterday at about 3 p.m. and they said we should have Internet in five hours," said Stephanie Hobbs, an undeclared freshman. "We still do not have Internet so we tried again today. Hopefully we get it back on."

It wasn't until late last night, one week after the quarantine, that Hobbs and Conrad finally had Internet access.

To get their computers back online, students are expected to contact Residence Computing twice, once after they have cleared their computer of Blaster and again after they have re-registered their computers with the network.

Students who fail to do either might be able to re-register with the network and get online again, but only temporarily.

"The system checks for computers on the quarantine list every 90 minutes," said Matt Wyckoff, an application systems analyst. "If we don't get an e-mail after they have re-registered, they will get kicked off again."

User-friendly patch software for Blaster is available at the front desk of every residence hall, Gilmore said.

The Blaster patch software searches a computer's hard drive, removes the worm and then prevents re-infection.

Microsoft warned customers in July about the Blaster virus, which capitalizes on weaknesses in Windows, causing computers to automatically reboot without a command from the user.

Many students failed to protect their own computers by installing Windows updates after the outbreak, which occurred in the latter months of the summer, and the university was forced to act.

"This could have been prevented if everyone was running automatic Windows updates that came out on Aug. 16," said Ted Frohling, member of the response team. "We did this to protect the rest of the world and get some control over our network."

Residential Computing is available from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday to help students get back on the network. Staff can be contacted by e-mail at support@rescomp.arizona.edu or by phone at (520) 626-4192.