AirUC Affected with Trojan, But Problem Fixed

Several students at University of Calgary (Canada) in the 1st week of April 2009 were unable to access the local area wireless network AirUC at the University owing to a Trojan worm.

This Trojan, according to reports, infiltrated numerous PCs at the campus and manipulated them for dispatching bogus IP addresses. Thus, PCs that areceived the bogus IP addresses could not access the AirUC network.

Doug Doran, Network Services Manager at AirUC, said that campus users faced maximum problems on April 7-8, 2009, but the anomalies have been resolved, as reported by gauntlet on April 9, 2009.

Doran further said that part of the problem relate to the fact that systems on AirUC were allowed to communicate with each other to perform file sharing and many people utilized the wireless network for online gaming as well. Thus, if that access is blocked, it would restrict users' functionality. But allowing such access on the network would expose the users to the irregularity, Doran explained.

The other problem was with respect to the Trojan that exploit security flaw within the software program that resulted in the repeated rebooting of all the access points to the AirUC system. The flaw was behind majority of the login problems. However, an emergency upgrade of the software was done that helped to overcome the flaw and bring the system under control, revealed Doran.

Meanwhile, the security specialists state that the AirUC problem has been substantial that resulted in infection at some computers and caused service loss for a number of others. However, mechanisms to cut off and control infected computers have momentarily been deployed, according to them.

The security specialists also said users who have installed an up-to-date antivirus program on their systems are likely to be unaffected by the Trojan. Therefore, the specialists have advised that everyone must ensure that their systems are complete with patches and up-to-date antivirus.

As a way for security precaution, AirUC has adopted a fresh system of wireless management this month (April 2009) that would facilitate the tracking of the location and time of the problems.

Related article: ARC Alerts About phishing Scam Targeting its Agencies

» SPAMfighter News - 4/16/2009