Cornell University Infected by Widespread Bot

Over 1,000 Windows computers at Cornell University fell prey to an extensive "bot" infection, according to an announcement made by the Cornell Information Technologies Security Office on October 24, 2008 via an e-mail alert that was issued throughout the University.

According to Manager of Security Engineering at the CIT security office, Wyman Miles, there was no change observed by the user in any of the infected computers, as reported by the Cornell daily Sun on October 27, 2008. Miles also said that the absence of evidence was possibly a deliberate ruse by the attackers to hide an infection over as long a time period.

Security specialists said that the new bot epidemic hitting Cornell is being spread solely through detachable hard drives like USB sticks, cameras and music players. It is believed that a lot of infections took place when students plugged their removable drives onto public computers.

According to Miles, the number of infections in computing departments and spaces for public use increase during the morning hours extending into the daytime. On the other hand, these infections gradually slowdown during the evening with the return of the students to their hostels. During that time, the rate of infection increases on RESNET networks, Miles explained.

According to Thomas Young, Deputy Director of the IT Security Office, so far, Linux and Macintosh computers are immune from the threat as the bot has been designed to manipulate only Windows computers' Autorun feature that automatically activates the software within detachable hard drives. Consecutively, the bot program could move directly from one infected hard drive onto the victim computer, as reported by The Cornell daily Sun on October 27, 2008. Young added that deactivating the Autorun feature could diminish the danger of becoming infected, and that directions to do the same were provided on the CIT website.

Miles also said that there was no evidence to show that the bot would cause extensive damage to computer systems. Hence, so far, whenever detected, it had been quite easy to eliminate without damaging any functionality or file on the system.

» SPAMfighter News - 07-11-2008

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