The Spectrum

Issue date: 12/8/05 Section: News

Media Credit: AP Photo/ Pier Paolo Cito This user friendly program can easily turn your computer into a virus ridden machine.

America Online's Instant Messenger service (AIM), the leading program created for instant, easy access between friends online, is also creating instantly difficult problems.

AIM has become an important means of communication and the dreaded virus is causing great frustration among users.

With just one quick click, the AIM user can be affected by a malicious virus and unknowingly sends the virus to other users on their buddy list.

"You have to delete your AIM completely from your computer," said Kristi Migne, a first year graduat student from Bellmore, N.Y.,

"It crashed my hard-drive and it was horrible. I lost all of my pictures, everything."

This type of virus or worm is referred to as Oscarbot or Opanki.worm.

The first reported case of this virus was in April 2005 and it has continued to flourish; damaging systems despite efforts by virus scan clients, like McAfee and Norton.

The virus generates an automated Instant Message that sends mass-Instant Messages to the users entire buddy list through a hyperlink to a file download or a website.

Common Instant Message viruses include "hey check out this,"and "this is hilarious," or "lol this looks just like you followed by a hyperlink.

After an unsuspecting AIM user clicks the virus hyperlink, the virus steals stored passwords and usernames.

New virus variants and new viruses are constantly being released so it is often difficult to avoid this type of pesky invader.

The Information Technology Department is always efficient in notifying students and faculty about new AIM and email viruses.

This past weekend the department released an email about a new Christmas Greeting Card virus.

Similar to the Oscarbot, the Christmas Greeting Card virus prompts the user to click a hyperlink to view a greeting card.

Instead of receiving seasonal cheer, the user receives an unwanted holiday present.

The best precaution to avoid losing your data is backing up files before the hard drive crashes.

Be skeptical of hyperlinks sent via AIM, even if they are coming from close buddies. Inquire with your friend before clicking.

If your computer is infected, websites have been developed to combat a virus's tyrannical reign on your computer.

Unfortunately, even after a virus is removed, spy-ware will probably remain on your system.

Spy-ware records and monitors sites a user visits and returns their computer usage to the author of the virus software.

The appearance of erratic error messages, Internet Explorer end-program prompts, and overall sluggish computer performance may be symptoms of a virus.



See page 11 for more computer related concerns.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools