Virus fears force game port closings

In response to the Blaster worm and other online virus attacks recently occurring on campuses nationwide, JMU Technical Services continues to implement its policy of Internet restrictions on sources attempting to open up ports on student computers.

As a result, students may not be able to access some of the recreational or gaming Web sites that they normally used.

"Our Internet protection does not allow outside systems to connect to open doors on student computers unless the communication was initiated from that open door," said Dale Hulvey, assistant vice president of Information Technology. "Games that don't open doors for other computers to come into should work fine. Those that do will not work properly."

Ports, also known as "open doors," allow connections and sources to access student computers. Although having open ports are beneficial in some ways, severe consequences also can arise from this situation.

"These doors are often left open needlessly by manufacturers, mistakenly left open by operators, and/or have defects that allow unwanted access [such as the Blaster worm]," Hulvey said.

A main concern of Technical Services in regard to open ports is hackers.

Security engineer at JMU Gary Flynn recounts past incidences when students had their computers taken over by password theft, allowing hackers to obtain bank accounts, Webmail access and personal information of an individual.

Other universities also experienced similar technical problems. At Harvard University, a virus called Bugbear circulated around students' personal e-mails, making the individual think the e-mail was from a friend.

Bugbear automatically selected an e-mail address from an individual's address book or e-mail history, and from there the virus spreads on the computer. Harmful effects included stolen sensitive information such as credit card numbers and passwords. Harvard computer services offered students a program to download that would scan e-mail viruses before the e-mails were sent to inboxes, according to the Jan. 16 issue of The Harvard Crimson.

At Longwood University, worms and Trojan horses, programs that claim to eliminate viruses but in actuality produce more, are still the recurring dangers among student computers, acccording to Flynn.

At the beginning of the year, the Blaster worm affected hundreds of thousands of computers, Flynn said. JMU was fortunate to have only a few hundred computers infected earlier this year, but the incident was enough to put Technical Services under precautions, according to Flynn.

Flynn said he and his staff were anticipating student dissatisfaction with the open/closed ports policy. They had received some complaints from students about not being able to access certain Web sites.

However, Flynn said not much can be done about these problems.

"If there are academic and business Web sites needed, we will make arrangements and work around it," Flynn said. "We try to do the best we can [to have] balance between usability and security."

Technical Services will continue to block sources that attempt to open ports on student computers, confirming that the number of viruses and malfunctions with computers has decreased after implementation of the open/closed ports policy according to Flynn.

Despite the responsibility of Technical Services to assist students with problems on their computers, the real responsibility comes from the students themselves, Flynn said.

"Safety really comes down to the person in front of the keyboard," he said.

Students are encouraged to visit the JMU Computing Help Desk Web site at www.jmu.edu/computing/security and download the recommended software protections and updates.

Those living off campus should visit the Network Telecommunications Web site, www.ntc-com.com, or apartment networks in their area.