George Mason University administrators temporarily cut offInternet access yesterday to 3,600 students living on campus in anattempt to protect the school's computer network from a raft ofviruses and worms plaguing the Internet.
The move came after school officials asked students to updatetheir anti-virus software, install other fixes and sign a statementconfirming they had done so. When many failed to comply, networkadministrators cut off access; they began to restore connectionsbuilding by building as they verified no infected PCs were pluggedinto the network. Students living off campus were able to continuedialing in to the university's computer network.
"I think we really need to groom a new type of student who isresponsible for their computer security," said Kathleen E. Gillette,manager of the school's beleaguered tech-support center. "A lot ofthem lived at home and Mom or Dad took care of the computer, sothey've never learned how to fix them but hopefully we'll be able toteach them that, too."
George Mason is one of many universities in the region and acrossthe country making computer security a top priority as the fallsemester gets underway.
University of Maryland student residents who tried to access theschool's network for the first time over the past two weeks weredirected to a Web site to help search for and mend the security holeexploited by Blaster, a computer worm that emerged last month andinfected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide. More than6,000 students who had yet to apply the needed software patches didso, but hundreds ignored the advice and were promptly booted fromthe university network, said Gerald F. Sneeringer, a computersecurity officer at Maryland's Office of Information Technology.
At the University of Virginia, some 800 new and returning studentresidents were knocked offline by the schools' automated security"bots," programs that patrolled the network looking for infected PCs.Students were then given CD-ROMs loaded with anti-virus software andother patches and were allowed to plug their computers into theschool network only after proving they had installed needed fixes.
Spokesmen for Howard, American, Georgetown, George Washington andCatholic universities reported far fewer problems with theirnetworks. While several of those schools were forced to disconnectsome infected computers, in most cases students were asked to provethat their PCs were clean before being allowed to access campusnetworks.
At George Mason, nearly 95 percent of student residents arrivedwith a computer this year. Freshmen reporting for orientation lastweek were required to personally meet a network security expert tohave their computers checked for viruses. Upperclassmen were greetedby school officials who handed out the latest anti-virus software.
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