New e-mail virus hits campus

A new virus hit campus Tuesday afternoon, rapidly spreading through a series of randomly generated emails. The virus is part of a virus strain known alternatively as the beagle or the bagel strain, which surfaced this weekend, said Dan Oberst, director of enterprise infrastructure services in OIT.

"We started with A, B and C strains this weekend, and now we are up to J, which is the one that is causing problems now," he said.

As of Tuesday night, OIT had not received the necessary antivirus software but expected to have it today.

In the meantime, Oberst said OIT decided to block the type of zip file that carries the virus in order to cut down on its ability to spread.

Oberst added that though the virus propagates itself through email, it does not appear to damage files.

OIT is usually able to put protections in place before a virus significantly spreads, but instances of this virus seem to have multiplied more quickly than anticipated. This is most likely because of measures that make the emails appear to be from OIT, Oberst added.

"The lesson here is if the email looks suspicious, don't open it," he said.