Virus shuts down Exeter University computer network

A major computer virus attack at the University of Exeter has sparked warnings at campuses across the country.

The attack on 18 January saw the entire university network temporarily shut down to prevent the virus from spreading.

Stuart Franklin, a spokesman for the University of Exeter, said: “We were attacked by a virus. It was a malicious attack. It is the first time I have known an attack to succeed. It affected everyone, staff and students.”

Arthur Clowes, an undergraduate politics and economics student, told The Journal: ”The attack was so sudden. The IT department had issued a blanket message warning everyone. The network went down and no one knew what had happened.”

The attack forced lecturers to abandon electronic whiteboards and projectors and return to more traditional marker pens and blackboards.

Mr Clowes added: ”Some of my lecturers have shown themselves to be too dependent on computers. There are those for whom the loss of technology has proved to be no problem while others have struggled without it.”

Ian Hill, security manager for Kcom, which oversees the security measures for Exeter internet company Eclipse, said: “Viruses that come out these days we tend to generally refer to as malware.

“It’s difficult to say what it was or where it came from. These things are coming out all the time. The virus almost certainly came in either via email or via students browsing affected websites. We do the best we can, but no system is 100 percent secure.”

The university’s computer network has returned to normal as The Journal goes to press, with 95 percent of the network functional and the virus isolated to 5 percent of the system.

The university has warned all users of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 to be on their guard. The Information Technology team at the university recommends the use of security programs to cover potential vulnerabilities.

A warning was issued to all Edinburgh Napier University students shortly after the attack, warning of the potential hazards to the Vista operating system.

In the email the attack was described as "the first in the world by a new particularly nasty virus and so far none of the antivirus packages can detect or fix infected machines".

The attack came at the same time as a warning issued by the German government against Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser.