A new computer virus was introduced on campus when students returned from winter break.

“Speculation is worse than anything,” said Tim Lewis, a network engineer for Information Technology Services. “Our network hasn’t gone down. The virus is contained and has mainly been on the academic side, affecting faculty e-mail and file servers, and not in the residence halls.”

It is not known where the virus originated.

According to an ITS employee who wished to remain anonymous, the “randex” virus attacks computers with weak or nonexistent passwords. Once attacked by the virus, a computer will run slowly and deny service on Eastern’s domain and cause system congestion, Lewis said.

“The virus was meant to inflict a denial of service attack on the system, so people can’t do their jobs,” Lewis said.

The “randex” virus can be easily taken care of, he said.

The ITS employee suggested that students access http://ddt.eiu.edu and download a free version of Norton Antivirus. Lewis said downloading and updating Symantec Anti-Virus is also a way to get rid of or avoid contracting the virus.

“The best thing to do is to call the Housing Help Desk for the latest on the virus and the best plan for removing viruses and protecting your PC from future attacks,” Lewis said.

Lewis said some home computers do not have protective patches that keep the computers virus-free. Also, some viruses can be downloaded from software or through file sharing, so some students may have brought the virus back from break, he said.

“Randex was conceived to help gamers win online games by being able to control the opponent’s computer and to enlist more computers into the game,” Lewis said.

Viruses such as this one are a form of “cyberterrorism,” he said.

“Big networks (like a university) are the best places to introduce viruses,” Lewis said.