The Virus is Worse than the Cure, Hacking and IT E-Book Dump Release
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Computers and Society
Page 10
March 1995
Case Study
She reports this problem to the director of computer
services who says he cannot do anything. When
they purchased the program from Trustus, they also
purchased semi-annual updates which would take
care of newly discovered viruses. The update was
not scheduled to arrive until the end of the semester.
She then went to the Vice President in charge of
computing who said that technical decisions like this
are made by the director of computer services.
The
Virus is Worse than the Cure
Don Gotterbarn
East Tennessee State University
gotterba@etsu, east-tenn-st, edu
Fredda was upset by all of this. She believes that it
is essential to her teaching that students have hands-
on programming experience. She has a major
programming assignment coming up next week and
she doesn't know what to do.
You are a faculty member at OldBoy PolyTechnic, a
small residential school in MidNowhere. Your
friend Fredda, in the computer science department,
has come to ask your advice. You know her to be a
reliable, level-headed and honest person. She
reminds you of all the difficultythe campus has been
having with very destructive computer viruses. She
tells you of some new problems with viruses.
She explains her problems to you. If she drops the
programming from the course, she feels she has
cheated the students and not adequately prepared
them for future programming courses. If she drops
programming from the course, she feels she is not
fulfilling her contract with the university to do the
best job she can.
You are surprised at this because you remember the
director of computer services saying that computer
services had taken some major steps against the
spread of viruses on the campus. In all of the
student computer laboratories the school had
installed automated virus scanners; software they
had purchased from TrustUs Computing. Whenever
a disk is inserted into a lab machine it is
automaticallyvirus scanned. If a virus is detected
the machine stops some it cannot be infected and it
can only be reactivated by a laboratory monitor, who
confiscates the student disk.
She feels she cannot require the class to do write
programs in an infectious environment. But very
few of the students own their own computers, so they
must rely on the school's computers. The school's
computers do not detect this new infection, so if she
were to require students to use these machines she
would aid in the spread of the virus.
She has several student aides who help her test the
class's programs, some of these student aides have
their own computers but they are not equipped to
detect this virus. Fredda had always required that
her student aids checked all class programs for
viruses using the school's virus system before the
aids took the programs to their dorm rooms to test
them on their own machines. This is no longer a
reliable way to project the aides' machines from a
destructive infection.
Fredda is teaching a very large section of a
computer programming class and has been pleased
with the effectiveness of the virus protection scheme.
In the past few weeks however several students have
reported damage to their disks. Fredda was puzzled
why there was suddenly a problem. When she
checked the student's disks on her personal virus
checking program-- Exposelt, one which she
purchased from a different software company, the
virus is always detected. When she takes the student
disk to the school computer lab, she finds that the
school's scanning program does not always detect
this stealth virus.
Computers and Society
Page 11
March 1995
Fredda has the disks from a recent assignment which
she is about to give to her aides. This is not a
problem, because she has personally checked all 213
disks using Exposelt. The problem is that several of
the aides use their personal computers to do tutoring.
Their machines might already be infected and infect
her class' disks.
Fredda, wants to give a copy of Exposelt to each of
her aides, so they can do their job safely, but
ExposeIt is a very expensive program and she cannot
afford to purchase copies for her aides. The school
has declined to purchase any copies of this program.
She is thinking about making illegal copies of
Exposelt to protect her aides' computers. In addition
she is also thinking of supplying her class with
copies of the program so that they can work
effectively in her class. She knows that she would be
violating the copyright laws, but she want to know ff
you think she would be right to do this.
Part of her problem is that she has been discussing
ethical responsibilities with her class and she
wonders how she can explain her actions to her aides
and to the class.
How would you help her protect the parties
involved? What would you advise her to do?
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