The Witty worm virus has attempted to wiggle into campus computers equipped with the BlackICE firewall program, but infection has been confirmed in only three machines.
Of the almost 2,000 computers equipped with the protection software, about 20 to 30 have been suspected of infection, while three computers have had hard drives destroyed by the Witty worm.
The MSU Computer Store has sold about 1,500 individual licenses - mostly to students - and 300 departmental licenses of the BlackICE firewall software program, said Tom Davis, Director of Academic Computing and Network Services.
Thomas said he was informed by a BlackICE salesperson that an average of 2 percent of software users became infected by the worm, and MSU seems to be less than that average.
The worm can erase hard drive information while resting in a computer's memory, enabling it to hide from virus scan systems.
Senior Information Technologist Richard Wiggins said the reason for the low number of infections could be the worm's lack of effectiveness.
"It looks like Witty is pretty good at knocking on your door but not good at getting in," he said.
Wiggins said the virus worm attempts to mask itself by changing its size before sending a copy to infect another computer. But this process, he said, might have rendered the virus unable to infect computers even though there has been much campus activity.
Political science and pre-law freshman John Norris' computer came with BlackICE installed. Norris said he was under the impression the program was considered one of the top firewalls.
"I think that some hacker had way too much time on their hands and most of the time that's how viruses start," he said.
Users of the BlackICE firewall are encouraged to upgrade the program through Internet Security Software, the software's provider. The upgrade is available at www.iss.net/download.
Infection also can be avoided by removing the firewall program, but that action could have a negative effect, leaving the computer open to other potential viruses.
Staff writer Melissa Domsic contributed to this report.
