Technology

ITCS filters stop spread of MyDoom virus

Information Technology Central Services (ITCS) virus filters stopped the fast-moving MyDoom virus within hours after it began spreading and flooding e-mail inboxes.

The antivirus software vendor, Network Associates Inc. (NAI), began work on a software update to detect and stop MyDoom as soon as it was discovered Jan. 26. As soon as NAI released the update, ITCS applied it to U-M's mail gateway machines.

Technology experts on campus advise users to protect themselves against viruses such as MyDoom by never opening unsolicited e-mail attachments and keeping antivirus software current. Visit http://www.itd.umich.edu/virusbusters/ for more information about virus protections.

There was a gap of several hours between the discovery of the MyDoom virus and the completion and application of the antivirus software update. During that time, some U-M machines were infected. Work began immediately to find and disinfect any affected machines.

The MyDoom virus only infected computers running Windows. Macintosh and other non-Windows computers were not infected.

MyDoom spread through e-mail with infected attachments. It forged the "From" field of the messages it sent, causing many people to receive rejection messages from systems that reject this mail. MyDoom used a random "Subject" line, and the infected attachment also was named randomly.

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