The College is experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of computer viruses on computers in the academic computer labs, John Weller, RWC Director of Network Resources, announced this week. He said these “infections” are being brought into the labs via flash (thumb) drives. As a result, Network Resources has made some changes to the computer settings in the labs. These settings prohibit the execution of programs that are stored on flash drives. Users can still use their flash drives, Weller said, to store and access data files, but they can no longer run programs from these drives.
Weller described the change as “relatively benign” for most users. However, he said it will affect users with “secure” flash drives, which run a small program, when the drive is inserted into the computer, that grants or denies access to the files on the drive based on a password. Since this small program can no longer run, the user will not be able to access the files stored on the drive.
In some cases, Weller said, there are workarounds that can solve this particular issue. Anyone who encounters this problem should come to the Network Resources Office to see if a solution can be found.