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TERM PAPERS AND VIRUSES 

As a general rule of thumb, when students are writing their term papers there are more viruses out than normal. I’m not saying that students place viruses on computers deliberately, as this could ruin there term paper, as well as their parents computer or their own. 

The places you normally pick up these viruses are:

• School or public libraries that allow members to use their computers

• Schools' computer rooms

• Places you can rent computers by the hour to do work or just print a document.

One of the most common viruses that hits Montreal when students write their term papers is the WAZZU virus.  This virus is really not very destructive, but does cause problems.  What it does is write its name WAZZU at random in the middle of your document.  This virus is easily removed by any anti-virus program. 

Here is a list of ways to avoid getting this virus:

1. If you're going somewhere just to print a document, write-protect your floppy disk.

2. Before opening any documents on your home computer scan them with your AV program.

3. If you have to go to any of these types of places, before going backup your documents on another floppy disk in case you get a virus like this, so you won’t have to search and delete the word WAZZU in thousands of places.

In different cities it may be a different virus as well.  One year in Montreal, the WAZZU got so far out of control the local phone company got it on their server and all hell broke loose.

Fred Arshoff is self employed in the computer industry where his favorite thing is troubleshooting security and virus issues.  He runs two Yahoo groups:  Fred's Findings and Fred's Virus Info.