University officials said they expect a smooth registration process as students continue to choose fall classes this week after a worm limited registration times Friday and Monday. Though some students are complaining about a lack of notice and failure to obtain classes because of the Internet worm, administrators said they feel the process was fair.
Students were not able to register Monday until noon after officials shut down the Banner system Friday afternoon to avert the devastating effects of a computer worm that has infected hundreds of computers. The worm also curtailed registration time by several hours Friday and caused a 30-minute registration delay Wednesday morning.
Although registration was delayed by several hours Monday, officials said students were still able to sign up for classes on a “first-come, first-serve basis.”
“There wasn’t really anything we could do,” said University Registrar Dennis Geyer, who added that “everyone had the same equal access” when Banner opened to students Monday afternoon.
By 6:30 p.m. Monday, about 830 students had signed up for classes, more than the amount of students Geyer estimated would register that day. On Friday, almost every student scheduled to register – about 700 people – signed up for classes from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. before Banner shut down.
Some students said they weren’t properly informed about the delay.
“I think they should have sent out an e-mail like they do regularly when special circumstances arise,” said sophomore Sharon Greenbaum, who signed up for classes at 12:15 p.m. Monday.
ISS officials posted a message on the GW advisory page Sunday night saying registration would begin at 10 a.m. Monday, but then pushed back the start time two hours.
“I got up at 6:45 a.m. to register at 7 a.m., but I was told it wouldn’t be up until 10,” sophomore Steven Roche said. “Then when I went at 10, it said it wouldn’t be up until noon. The registrar’s office was helpful, but they didn’t really know anything.”
Roche said he “dove over” his bed to start registering when his roommate told him Banner was accessible.
Greenbaum said GW should have pushed registration back a day because many students were at class or work when Banner opened and were unable to access the Internet until nighttime. Registration typically begins at 7 a.m.
Officials had “no idea” Monday when Banner would be open because they first needed to prevent GW Web sites from being infected by the worm, Geyer said. He said that Banner was accessible as soon as officials secured the sites.
Geyer said hackers, who use the worm to steal users’ passwords, were not able to obtain any student’s personal records.
“To our knowledge, there weren’t any student files that were affected by this,” he said.
Since last week, officials have located about 275 computers that have been infected by the worm, which can spread over the GW network but not through e-mail, said Kerry Washburn, director of Administrative Applications for Information Systems and Services. Once a worm infects a computer, it can obtain other users’ passwords over the GW network.
“Most of these have already been identified and isolated, and we are in the process of removing the virus from them,” Washburn said.
ISS officials expect that there will be future attempts to hack into the GW network, said Washburn, who urged students to update their virus detection software and change their Banner login and e-mail passwords. She added that ISS did not anticipate a need to shut down registration again.
