The computer virus "Romeo and Juliet," also known as "BleBla," bombarded Harvard e-mail accounts yesterday, inconveniencing users but causing little serious damage.
The virus, which spreads by resending itself to infected e-mail address books, prevents the opening of certain files and sends them to the computer's recycle bin.
But users can retrieve the files from the recycle bin and will not suffer permanent damage to their computer.
"In its current form, the virus is very good at transmitting itself, but its payload is relatively minor," said Kevin S. Davis '98, the coordinator of Residential Computing, who is also a Crimson editor.
Davis said the virus will "inconvenience a lot of students" but should not cause irrevocable loss of data on their hard drives.
But he warned that a programmer could make a change in the virus that could potentially give it much more damaging properties.
"It doesn't have the potential in its current form to overload the system," he said. "It hasn't impacted the performance of the mail system."
But Davis strongly urged students to take steps to protect their computer.
Read more in News
Students Go Digital In Valentine Date SearchRecommended Articles
-
Chernobyl Virus Strikes Harvard ComputersWhen the computer screen of Andrew G. Eil '02 froze late last Sunday night, he figured the troublesome PC was
-
Computer Virus Could Delete Hard Drives on Dec. 13Campus computer users--beware. On Dec. 13 a virus might strike your computer. Residents of Leverett House were alerted last Friday
-
ILOVEYOU Virus Hits University ComputersA virus that has so far infected 45 million computers worldwide has circulated widely at Harvard, prompting Harvard Arts and
-
Computer ContagionI admit it: Despite all warnings, without even realizing the classic signs of the nasty binary bugs we call computer
-
Sili-ConC OMPARISONS to the movie "Wargames" were quickly made as reports spread that Cornell grad student Robert T. Morris Jr.
-
Hacking Doesn't PayThe Harvard graduate widely believed to have let loose a computer virus which incapacitated computers across the nation last year
