Virus UPDATE

Good afternoon,

        Please be aware that there is a virus affecting flash drives and external hard drives that has infected numerous people on campus. This virus exploits the autorun/autoplay feature of Windows to spread the virus and will cause your folders to disappear once the drive is connected to a computer. We are doing everything we can to address the issue, including disabling the autorun feature in all of the labs, but there are some things you need to know in order to prevent being infected until we can be sure that this is under control:

• Reboot every computer BEFORE you use it. Go to start ->shutdown -> Restart.

• If you can avoid using a flash drive today, then it is recommended that you do. Burning CD’s is the safest method of saving your work as they cannot be infected. We are offering students free CD's until we can get this problem resolved which can be picked up at the Bookstore in Main building as well as Main Operations center in M436.

• If your hardware has become infected, please contact the helpdesk in M436, x.2200 (954-308-2200), or www.aiflhelp.com and we will address the issue as quickly as we can. Please be patient as we have had several infections today and the process to restore the files can take between 10 minutes and 2 hours.

We are currently testing some other methods of virus removal as well. This is the second instance of this virus that we have seen in the last year and is more sophisticated than the first.



Thank you,
Technology