Inside Tufts

University Information Technology

Information Security

Virus CleanUp

Occasionally the time lag between the release of a virus and the vendors' release of an anti-virus signature can be 3 to 4 hours. If staff opened an attachment and infected their computer with a virus, generally the Trend CleanUp Tool, or Norton AntiVirus tool for Macintosh computers, can safely be used to clean the host.

  1. Remember to burn a fresh CD of the Trend CleanUp tool with the latest pattern
  2. Be prepared to reinstall Trend Antivirus if the virus has disabled the program
  3. If the host is running Windows ME/XP, System Restore must be disabled to fully scan the infected system and to prevent the restore point from re-installing the virus after the host is rebooted.

Online Messaging and Viri/Worms

In the first six weeks of 2005, 10 instant-messaging worms and their variants spread over America Online, ICQ and MSN networks, according to researchers at Akonix Systems.

MSN Messenger
New worms, March 2005
BestFriends AIM adware/virus
Short-Media Forums removal instructions.
Marketscore
Columbia's removal instructions.