The next IT security roundtable will be 9-10:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 13, in Union 213 on how people are dealing with new malware threats being battled at K-State. This roundtable will be entirely a discussion format with no formal presentation. Join us to share your experiences with, and questions about, dealing with the likes of Antivirus 2009, malicious links in Google search results, and other puzzling infections seen at K-State lately.
Various versions of the “scareware” Antivirus 2009 have wreaked somewhat widespread havoc at K-State and are often associated with other malware. Hackers are also paying for sponsored links in Google and other search engines, so even if you click on one of the first results of a normal Google search, your computer is immediately infected.
Furthermore, several computers at K-State were infected recently with a stealth form of malware that installs a rootkit and redirects certain DNS queries to an external DNS server, which can redirect unsuspecting users to a malicious facsimile of a popular website or simply infect the computer with malware directly.
Normal pattern-based antivirus software defenses are largely ineffective because these malicious links and the malware they install change frequently, in some cases as often as every few minutes. They can also do their damage silently, depending on whether you use Internet Explorer or Firefox as your browser and how you have those browsers configured.
There is great value in the collective wisdom of the system administrators on campus who are on the front lines of K-State’s IT security defenses. Join us to add your knowledge and experience and to learn from others as we work together to protect K-State’s information and technology resources.
As always, this IT security roundtable is sponsored by SIRT and open to anyone.
