On April 26, 1999, the well-know Win95.CIH virus has activated again at many computers in Russia. The leading Russian experts on antiviral protection, Kaspersky Lab and DialogNauka, reported numerous applications to their technical support centers this day.

Beginning with morning of April 26 and during the next 9 hours, the DialogNauka technical support service has received about 500 phone calls and 100 e-mail messages from more than 20 cities throughout Russia, reporting about Win95.CIH activity.

Both Moscow (http://wwwavp.ru) and United States (http://wwwavp.com) technical support centers of the Kaspersky Lab, as well as distributors of its AntiViral Toolkit Pro (AVP) worldwide were plastered with an avalanche of calls from the users exposed to destructive effects of the virus. E.g., the Italian office of Future Time di Paolo Monti company, a local distributor of AVP, received more than 50 calls by 9 a.m., April 27, 1999. They reported about virus activity at about 100 computers.

About one thousand of disabled computers were reported to the head office of Kaspersky Lab in Moscow. The company's experts estimate the total scale of the Win95.CIH epidemy in Russia at not less than 100,000 computers. Eugene Kaspersky, the head of antiviral projects of the company, said that he did not expect the viral activity to reach this scale. According to his previous estimates, the number of infected computers in Russia was expected to achieve only a few tens of thousands.

The broad list of Win95.CIH victims includes various governmental institutions, with force departments and law enforcement institutions also being among them (in particular, the Department of Internal Affairs of Voronezh city in Central Russia); banks; publishing houses (e.g., Izvestia); private enterprises; and even computer companies.

In general terms, the Win95.CIH virus has been known for a long time. The detailed description of the virus may be found at Web sites of many antiviral vendors, e.g., http://wwwdials.ru/inf/win95cih.htm . Antiviral products, including both Doctor Web by DialogNauka and AVP by Kaspersky Lab, have been able to detect and cure it since its early appearances. Yet the burst of its activity reveals that most of the users do not apply antiviral software properly, despite numerous warnings. The oppressive fact is that many of the new Win95.CIH victims did own recent versions of antiviral products, but did not run them at due time to check the disks of their computers.

At the same time, those who take care of the integrity of his/her data and use the up-to-date versions of antiviral programs are well protected against such viral assaults. Both vendors say that no victims were found among the customers accurately following their instructions and guidelines.

DialogNauka company issued a free version of Doctor Web for Windows 95/98/NT, capable of detection and elimination of the viruses of Win95.CIH family. It can be downloaded free of charge at the websites ftp://ftp.DialogNauka.ru, ftp://ftp2.DialogNauka.ru, ftp://ftp3.DialogNauka.ru, http://wwwDialogNauka.ru. Another free utility for detection of the virus is offered by Kaspersky Lab and may be downloaded at http://wwwavp.ru or http://wwwavp.com.

=========== Students of four Russian universities compete for Intel grants

Intel corporation announced contests in four leading Russian universities to promote intensive application of the most up-to-date computer technologies in teaching and scientific research. Contests are held in Moscow State University, Moscow State Technical University, Moscow Engineering and Physical Institute and Moscow Physical and Technical Institute separately from each other. Participants of the contests are chairs, laboratories and other divisions of all departments and institutes of each university. The winners will be awarded with a hardware suite for a new computer lab, including workstations, a server, networking equipment and auxiliary hardware.

While considering the applications, the jury will give preference to the projects aimed at consistent integration of the functionality of modern information technologies into teaching process, as well as at training the specialists who will be able to make an effective use of corresponding tools. Video, audio, 3D imaging, and Internet are highlighted as the principal fields of IT application in teaching.

This activity, in its turn, implies broad application of the newest computer hardware based on Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors. Results of the contests are expected to be announced in mid-June, 1999.

Source: InfoArt News Agency

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