Students are expected to be able to register Monday morning after a crippling computer worm forced the shut-down of several GW Web sites last week.
GW prevented access to the Banner System and several other sites starting Friday afternoon in an attempt to escape the devastating effects of a worm that steals students’ login passwords and sends them to hackers. Officials did not shut down Colonial Mail over the weekend.
The worm has already infected several computers using the GW network, according to the Information Systems and Services’ Help Desk site.
While students were not scheduled to register Saturday and Sunday, those signing up for classes Friday were prevented from accessing Banner after officials shut down the site at about 5 p.m.
On Sunday, Media Relations specialist Matt Lindsay said he did not know how officials would handle the registration process or whether students would be able to sign up for classes Monday. However, the ISS Web site posted a message at 9:40 p.m. that said students could register at 10 a.m. Monday.
But, he said, the University would ensure that “the process will be fair to students.” Registration for next semester began last Tuesday and was scheduled to continue until April 16.
“To protect the students and the University, the best thing was to shut the system down for the weekend,” Lindsay said in a phone interview Friday.
ISS officials could not be reached for comment during the weekend.
“If there was another way to do it, they would have done it,” Lindsay added.
Sophomore Josh Rudawitz, who was supposed to register this week, said he was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to sign up for classes Monday. He also pointed to last year’s housing and Webmail troubles as evidence that the University has had difficulty handling computer problems.
“It’s definitely something to worry about that Banner won’t be up by the time Monday rolls around given their track record of dealing with (glitches),” he said.
Other students said that the recent spate of viruses and worms has made them more wary of opening e-mails. Last week, the SkyNet.T virus flooded students’ e-mail inboxes and infected more than 100 computers.
The worm, which is not spread through e-mail, infects computers over the GW network and transmits users’ login information to hackers. In addition to Banner, ISS restricted access to the Enterprise Accounting System and Student and Student Accounts Data Marts sites.
ISS cautioned students against logging on to GW sites until they enhance their computers’ security by following instructions provided on its Web site – http://helpdesk.gwu.edu. They also sent out a blast e-mail Friday informing students about the worm.
Freshman Sarah Fink said she was concerned about the virus but followed ISS procedures and changed her GW login passwords.
“I think that maybe we won’t be able to register on the day we’re supposed to,” she said, “but we’ll get classes eventually.”
–Marissa Levy contributed to this report.
