W P I c a tc h e s by Jeffrey Goldmeer Associate Editor For m any years com puter users w orld w ide have had to deal with the problem o f com puter viruses. W PI had been lucky in this respect, as a m ajor infection had not invaded the cam pus. H ow ever, this situation changed last w eek w hen the PingPong Virus m ade its presence known on com puters cam pus wide. O nce a m achine is infected with this virus, a sm all bouncing dot may appear on the screen; hence the virus’ nam e. It is im portant to realize that this virus m ay not give any outw ard signals to the user that a com puter has been infected; the ping pong ball may not appear. T his virus lives on the boot strap of the disk (hard or soft) that it has in fected. T he boot strap is the portion of the disk that contains the inform ation that the com puter uses to ‘boot-up.’
W hen a co m p u ter ‘boots-up’ from an infected disk, the virus takes control o f the c o m p u te r’s disk control sys tem. T his allow s it to spread itself to any disk that the com puter is using. O nce the virus is active on a co m puter, it m ay cause a loss o f data; how ever, only a few cases o f this happening have been reported. The virus w as discovered in co m puters in every PC com puter lab on cam pus. It is believed that the virus has been infecting com puters on the W PI cam pus since mid A term . The virus did not affect any mini com put ers, or th e Encore. As a consequence o f this discovery, m any com puter labs w ere closed to allow lab personnel to clean o ut the infected m achines. This task included scanning all o f the com puters for the virus. T his was done using a com m ercially available virus detection program . T hrough the use o f this softw are a new discovery was m ade. The P aki
stani Brain V irus had infected a lim ited num ber o f com puters. This virus, unlike the Ping Pong V irus, is destruc tive in nature. It random ly reform ats a sector o f the hard disk in a non IBMPC com patible form at. This m eans that this virus will destroy inform a tion stored on a disk, and this data cannot be retrieved. A s a result o f this situation, many labs are now requiring users scan their disks to show that they are virus free, before allow ing them to use their com puters. If a virus is found, the lab personnel will help the user rem ove the virus from the disk. This is re quired, as students who do not know that their disks are infected m ay inad vertently spread the virus. Professor D avid C yganski, C h ief Inform ation O fficer, com m ented on this situation during a recent inter view . He stated that this w ould be com e a standard operating procedure, supplem ented by regular sw eeps of
a v iru s the com puters to check for new viral outbreaks. He added that Academic C om puting has previously exam ined many different virus scanning pro gram s as w ell as resident viral detec tion program s. T he difference is that the scanning program s are run at discrete tim es by com puter lab m onitors. The resident detection program s would be acti vated each tim e the com puter is turned on, and would continually ch eck fo r u n au th o rized activ ity w ithin the com puter. He stated that the later m ethod adds a large measure o f inconvenience to a com puter sys tem. He com pared the tw o systems with the analogy that the scanning system is com parable to getting sick, and taking the proper m edicine, and recovering, w hile the resident detec tor w as equivalent to walking around in a lab coat w ith gloves and nose plugs.
Prof. Cyganski w as also asked to com m ent on the concepts o f safe com puting. He replied that half o f the trick to staying safe is obeying the law. Program s that are legally ob tained, i.e. purchased, are virus free. A cquiring free softw are creates many potential problem s. Prof. Cyganski suggests that for those w ho receive softw are via bulle tin boards use viral scanning pro gram s to verify the safety o f the pro gram s. H e also recom m ends that all who use com puters m ake regular backups o f their data; com plete back ups o f hard disks at regular intervals, and increm ental backups o f rapidly changing inform ation, such as text files. For those w ho are unsure as to the status o f their disks (clean vs. in fected), the A cadem ic C om puting lab can scan your disks, and help you clean the disks o f viruses, if they exist.
The S tuden t N e w sp a p e r of W orcester P o ly tech n ic Institute V o lu m e 1 7 , N u m b e r 2 3
T iie s d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 4 ,1 9 8 9
WPI Glee Club in concert by Professor Curran
O n Sunday, the 19th o f Novem ber, the W ells C ollege C horal Ensemble and the W PI G lee C lub will present a concert o f M usic for Fall, at Trinity Lutheran C hurch, at 4:00 p.m. Trinity is located at 73 Lancaster, next to T heta Chi fraternity and across from the W orcester A rt M useum . A dm is sion will be $2.00 for students, $3.00 for adults. Forty o f the w om en from W ells w ill arrive on the cam pus on Friday night and will be housed with the men from the G lee C lub. D uring their stay here, a busy program o f rehearsals, parties, and expeditions have been planned for them . T he W ells C ollege Choral E n sem bles, conducted by C raw ford R. T hobum , have perform ed extensively throughout the northeastern United States and in Europe, and have ap peared with such orchestras as the
Syracuse Sym phony, the Paul K uentz C ham ber O rchestra o f Paris, and the C oncerto Soloists o f Philadelphia. Featured on netw ork radio, they have also appeared at national and regional professional m eetings, and have won prizes in international singing com pe titions. O v er the years the C hoir has prem iered w orks especially w ritten for them by Paul H indem ith, Daniel P in k h am , V in cen t L uti, C arlto n Russell, Raym ond W ilding-W hite and L arry Solom on. T h eir conductor, C raw ford R. T hobum , received his training at A l legheny C ollege and Boston U niver sity, and has pursued post-graduate study in conducting with Robert Shaw, M argaret H illis and O ttoW em er M ueller. In addition to his work as a conductor and solo singer, he has w ritten articles and review s for TH E C H O R A L JO U R N A L and T H E A M ERICA N C H O R A L REV IEW , and his choral arrangem ents and com positions have been issued by
eight publishers and perform ed by choirs in C anada and England as well as the United States. W ells C ollege, in A urora, N.Y. established in 1868 by Henry W ells, the founder o f the W ells-Fargo and American Express C om panies, is a sm all selective liberal arts college w ith a reputation for academ ic excel lence devoted to the education of young w om en. O ver the years, the college has enjoyed the services o f a distinguished faculty including com posers Paul H indem ith and N icolas Nabokoff, and m usicologists J. M ur
ray Barber, Paul Henry Lang and Carl Parrish. The W PI G lee Club is oldest extant student organization on cam pus. N um bering forty-seven men, they will com bine w ith Regis College (sixty w omen) to launch their sixth European tour in March. The club schedules a m ajor tour every second year. So far, the club has concertized in France, Belgium , G erm any, and A ustria, three tim es in England, and this year, to Spain. They have been heard extensively in the N ortheast on radio and have published four record
G r a d u a t e S c h o o l F a ir a t W P I (W PI N ew s R elease) A G raduate School Fair w ith representatives from forty m ajor colleges and universities from predom inantly the N ortheast, but including universities from as far
away as Florida, is scheduled for W ednesday, N ovem ber 15 at W orc ester Polytechnic Institute. The fair will be held in the low er wedge from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. T his annual event is sponsored by the W orcester C onsortium o f H igher Education. Last year more than 500 interested college graduates attended the fair. T his year sim ilar attendance is expected from throughout Central M assachusetts. The W orcester C on sortium includes A nna M aria C ol lege, A ssum ption College, Clark Uni versity, C ollege of the Holy Cross, N ichols C ollege, W PI, and W orcester
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W P I b ags M IT 's “ M oose
ings and num erous cassettes. The m ajor work on the program will be four sections o f the M ass in G M inor o f Ralph V aughn-W illiam s. The soloists will be: Sopranos - Lisa C rockford and Laurel Shim ko Altos - M elissa Dore and C laire Silver T enors - John Palm er and JohnPierre Trevisani ‘90 Basses - M ichael W robleski ’90 and Donald Pitman ‘92 The m ajor part o f the program will be conducted by Prof. C urran o f W PI.
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State C ^ le g e . Com bined enrollm ent total m ore than 15,000 students. “This is an excellent opportunity to m eet firsthand with representatives from key graduate schools,” said Rae C arlsen, G raduate M anagem ent Pro gram D irector at W PI. “There w ill be adm issions and faculty from virtually all disciplines including law, busi ness, engineering, arts and Sciences. This is an opportunity to gather im portant inform ation for graduate school decision m aking,” she contin ued. A dditional inform ation can be obtained by calling 831-5561.
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The D ean o f Students O ffice is coordinating plans for students , (national and international) w ho are unable to travel hom e for the J Thanksgiving holiday and w ould like to share the holiday meal.'/ with a local fam ily. If you are a student w ho is interested in dining with a local fam ily or if you are a faculty or staff m em ber w ho is w illing to open your hom e to a student on Thanksgiving day, please con tact Barbara Hutchinson (8315 2 0 1 ) in the Dean o f Students O ffice by Fri day, N ovem ber 17. T h an k y o u for helping us share the true spirit o f T hanksgiving.