Virut Virus

Liberty University’s IT Customer Support department has seen several machines this week that have versions of the Virut Virus on them. This is an extremely complex virus that many antivirus products can detect, but cannot remove.

Symptoms

The only consistent symptom that we and other security professionals have seen is that antivirus programs may begin warning about the infection, but they will not be able to clean them.

What the Virus Does

Virut does a wide variety of things to your computer once it begins installing itself. You may see a combination of some or all of the following happen to your computer:

· The virus infects all executable programs (.EXE files) so that every program on your computer becomes capable of infecting another machine if it is run.
· The virus will automatically copy these infected files to any USB drives or other storage media that you connect to the computer, making the thumb drive capable of infecting the next machine that it is plugged into.
· The virus is also capable of infecting files on a network drive, such as your personal or department Molly drives if you use an infected machine to access these files.
· The virus also installs a small version of a chat client invisibly on your computer, allowing the virus to receive commands and download files without your knowledge.

How to Avoid It

Here are some things that you can do to minimize your chances of getting this virus:

· Avoid visiting any suspicious websites or clicking suspicious links.
· Avoid using USB drives other than your own if you do not know what machines they may have been connected to.
· Do not download any executable files (files ending in .EXE) from sources you cannot trust (file-sharing software, websites, etc.)

How to Fix It

If you believe that you have this virus on your computer, the only known solution is to format your computer and reinstall Windows. If you need any additional information about this virus, what it can do to your computer, or how to recover from it, please bring your computer to the HelpDesk (Campus North 1539) or call us at (866) 447-2869.