University of Utah Computers Gets Hit by the Conficker Worm
Posted on May 1, 2009 by admin Under Computers · Leave a Comment
(AP) – Computer virus had infected nearly more than 700 computers in the campus including three that were at the school’s hospitals as reported by the University of Utah officials.
Chris Nelson who is the spokesman in the University health science stated that there was an outbreak of the Conficker worm, which can actually slow down the computers and also manage to steal away any personal information, was detected by the officials on Thursday. Most of the computers at the hospitals were in fact infiltrated by the virus including the medical school, pharmacy and health, and the colleges of nursing.
All the patients data including the medical records were also not compromised as was added by Nelson.
Due to the implications they were secured in a much deeper way he added.
The virus was believed to be attacking personal computers and could also be siphoning all the login and password details along with credit card numbers and the information of the banking details said Nelson.
The staff and students were given information of the directions to control the personal computers and other equipments including the thumb drives, smart phones along with digital cameras from getting infected by the virus.
The access to internet services were nearly shut off for six hours by the information technology staff in certain locations in the campus on Friday so that they could literally isolate the virus. They were also expected to eradicate the virus by the weekend as it needed to be cleared off the system.
The virus in no way could infect the Macs but the necessary steps to protect the system should be taken by all students and faculty alike was stated by Mindy Tueller who is an information technology personnel at the university’s office.
It was also added by Tueller that the virus could in fact do much more harm and every university member should in fact be concerned about this especially if they are using the Window’s based devices.
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