DOBSON — Surry Community College was hit with a computer virus on Monday. Known as a “Syn Attack,” the virus broadcasts multiple and repeated network commands which floods the network to the point it eventually shuts down.
The college’s IT department disconnected network access in order to isolate and remove the virus from affected computers. No data was compromised. As of Thursday morning, 40 percent of computers were restored with internet connectivity. The remaining computers are working, but do not have network or Internet access. It is projected to take until Friday afternoon or Monday morning for the problem to be fixed. No classes were officially canceled from this event, as faculty have contingency teaching plans in place for such an incident. Computers are working; students simply have limited access to the Internet.
The virus was most likely received from an Internet connection from a website.
“This is known as a ‘zero day’ problem, which means it has not appeared before, said Nate Nixon, IT Director for Surry Community College. “That is why even though we were up to date on our anti-virus updates, the program did not catch the virus.”
It is highly recommended that any faculty, staff, or visitor to the college this week who may have used any removable media device check it for the virus. This can be done by visiting http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890830, downloading the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, and running a scan on the external device.
This affected the Dobson and Yadkin campuses.
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