Sasser worm hitting K-State hard;
hundreds of PCs at risk
updated May 5, 2004, 9:50 a.m.
Sasser is a dangerous new worm that is hitting K-State hard, and
almost 400 K-State computers are at risk.
This afternoon, the K-State Security Incident Response Team
began blocking network access for all computers that are vulnerable to or infected with this worm
(see the blocked-hosts list).
This is to prevent disruption of the campus network and
reduce further infections.
Simple routine maintenance would have stopped Sasser.
It attacks known security problems that were reported April 13 in
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-011,
which also had updates to fix the problems.
PCs with Microsoft's Windows Update service
and owners who are regularly applying those updates are protected against this worm.
An e-mail warning was sent to all K-Staters Wednesday, April 28. Over the weekend, the worm hit two computers
on the K-State campus. Computing and Network Services is scanning the campus network often
to identify computers that have not yet applied the MS04-011 patch, and a list of those were sent to
departmental SIRT contacts and network administrators.
Other Regents universities are reporting hundreds of infected computers.
Within three days of Sasser's initial release, there were
already three variants. Symantec rates the B variant of Sasser at a
severity level of 4 out of 5 -- it's serious!
For more about the Sasser worm:
—K-State Security Incident Response Team
Patches for Sasser worm available on free CDs
Free CDs with the Sasser-worm patches for Windows 2000, NT, and XP and
other antivirus software are being distributed to K-Staters starting
8 a.m. Wednesday, May 5, at the K-State IT Help Desk in
313 Hale Library. Questions can be sent to the help desk, 532-7722,
helpdesk@ksu.edu.
What you can do:
- Apply all Windows critical security patches immediately from
the CD and/or Microsoft's Windows Update
service and then reboot.
- Set your Symantec AntiVirus software to
update daily.
- If you have any questions, contact your department's security contact (see the
SIRT contact list) or
the K-State IT Help Desk.
If the W32.Sasser worm does infect your computer, recovery will require
reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling Windows and your applications.
—R. Gould, Information Technology
Assistance Center
Central e-mail improvements slated for fall release
updated May 5, 2004, 1:29 p.m.
Over the summer, Computing and Network Services will be upgrading the
infrastructure for the e-mail system on campus.
The upgrade will alleviate the strain on the system that we have
been experiencing this semester and provide
enhanced spam-filtering and antivirus protection.
Specific features of the upgrade are listed below.
The WebMail interface will be replaced by a new, web-based e-mail client.
This change will not affect mailboxes, and webmail.ksu.edu will continue
to be the official web address. Address books will be moved automatically
to the new web-based client.
All e-mail clients connecting to the central e-mail server will
require encrypted eIDs and passwords.
The university will only support specific e-mail clients. This
list was generated from a university-wide committee on the most prevalent clients
on campus. K-Staters are not required to change clients if their existing
client is secure; however, support will only be provided for "supported
clients". Each year this list of supported clients will be re-evaluated
and updated.
| Platform |
Supported e-mail clients |
| Unix/Linux |
Mozilla 1.5, Netscape 7.1, Pine 4.44 |
| Windows |
Mozilla 1.5, Netscape 7.1, Outlook (Express 6/5.02M, 2000, 2003),
Pegasus 4.12A |
| Apple |
Mozilla 1.5, Apple Mail 10.3 |
Documentation and self-help training modules will be available
by the start of the fall semester.
For more information, see the
e-mail project website.
—Marketing Committee, K-State E-Mail Enhancement Project
Kansas Regents Network upgraded
to new operating system
The Kansas Regents Network audio-conferencing service migrated to a
new operating system in April. The upgrade, while transparent to audio
clients, provides increased reliability and stability to meet the growing
demand for voice conferencing at K-State.
As part of the upgrade, the
network will set up a second, redundant audio server as a backup to
on-going conference operations. KRN, located in Bob Dole Hall, uses
the Spectel conferencing platform to run approximately 95 conference
calls per month. For more information, see
www.telenet2.org or call 532-5995.
—S. Barton, Kansas Regents Network
TechBytes finished for semester;
see resources online
The TechBytes series is over for the semester.
If you missed some of the sessions, you can review many of the resources
-- including videos, PowerPoint presentations, and handouts -- on the
Spring 2004 Series
webpage. Topics this semester were
- Cool PC tools
- Website/computer accessibility
- PowerPoint do's and don'ts
- Amazing Adobe Acrobat
- Using CSS with K-State Online and the Survey System
- What's new in FrontPage 2003
- What's new in Macromedia DreamweaverMX2004
- Microsoft Access
- Security best practices
- Tegrity cart system
—G. Snyder, Research and Extension
| Cool IT tool: Clean out Windows temporary space |
|
At least once a month, clean out temporary storage spaces on your computer:
- C:\temp
- C:\windows\temp
- C:\windows\tmp
- C:\document and settings\username\temp
- C:\windows\prefetch
Review the Recycle Bin and empty it. If you haven't used it in the last month, you probably
don't need anything in there.
Lastly, close all applications, search the C drive for any other temporary files (search *.tmp)
and delete any found.
—from TechBytes "Cool Tools"
|
| Website worth watching |
Current Cites
Current Cites is
"an annotated bibliography of selected articles, books, and digital documents on information technology".
Current Cites is produced monthly by a team of librarians and
staff at the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE.
They monitor IT literature in both print and digital form, and
annotate 10-15 of the best items into a free publication, with a
free mailing list.
Send site suggestions to TellTuesday@ksu.edu.
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