Virus Alert: Berbew (06/25/04)
There have been a number of news reports regarding a new set of exploits that are affecting users of Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows. These exploits involve a user's system becoming infected by a trojan horse or virus after visiting a hacked website.
Antivirus vendors have named this trojan horse "berbew".
More information on the specifics of this trojan horse can be found at:
http://www.lurhq.com/berbew.html
At this time, very few campus systems appear to be compromised by this trojan horse. We will continue to monitor the situation and update the Cornell community if conditions change.
To protect yourself from being infected, run antivirus software on all your systems. Keep that antivirus software up-to-date with the latest virus definitions. Information on Symantec AntiVirus can be found at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/services/nav/Also, web browsers other than Internet Explorer do not seem to be vulnerable to this exploit. If one must use Internet Explorer, disabling javascript and ActiveX will help protect your system, though it may interfer with the functionality of some websites, including Cornell Administrative websites. Be sure to consult with your local support provider before making any changes to your system's configuration.
More information on how to protect yourself from the trojan can be found on this Microsoft webpage:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/download_ject.mspxCornell University has signed a site license with Symantec to provide Symantec AntiVirus (SAV) to the entire campus community. The license allows SAV to be used on all university-owned computers, home computers of staff and faculty, and computers owned by registered students. Please see http://www.cit.cornell.edu/software/downloads/antivirus/ for complete information.
If you need help, please ask the CIT Contact Center (HelpDesk) by calling 255-8990, by sending e-mail to helpdesk@cornell.edu, or by visiting 119 CCC. The Contact Center is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with extended phone hours Monday-Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the academic year. If the Contact Center is closed and your problem is urgent, contact the Network Operations Center at 255-9900.
You can receive messages like this via e-mail by subscribing to the CIT-Alert-L mailing list, which is used to distribute announcements about significant disruptions or threats to the campus computing and telecommunications environment. Visit the CIT-Alert-L subscription page.
Last modified: June 04, 2007