MAJURO, Marshall Islands (Pacific Islands Report)\u2014Computer viruses are at “epidemic proportions” in Majuro, says local computer troubleshooter Steve Whitehead.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s been extremely busy the past several weeks disinfecting computers at local businesses and government agencies.<\/p>\n
“Virtually anyone who has Internet access has a virus,” he said.<\/p>\n
Many viruses \u2013 including some titled “Snow White” and “Hahaha” \u2013 are coming in via e-mail.<\/p>\n
National Telecommunications Authority deputy general manager Tommy deBrum said a “kakworm” virus destroyed his hard drive.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m sending my computer off-island to clean and repair it,” he said. “It\u2019s bad.”<\/p>\n
He said that the Marshalls had largely escaped many of the viruses that were sweeping computers around the world over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n
But since November, more and more have been pouring in via e-mail.<\/p>\n
Many of the viruses are designed to attach to a computer\u2019s e-mail address book so that a person will unknowingly send out the viruses to people they communicate with.<\/p>\n
Because the Marshalls is so small, a virus gets transmitted easily and quickly to everyone in town, deBrum said.<\/p>\n
The scary development, Whitehead said, is that some of these generic viruses are now being modified by people specifically targeting the Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n
A virus software protection company has rated these viruses as “medium” level problems. They\u2019ll disable certain programs in your computer, causing disruptions, he said.<\/p>\n
If people don\u2019t have virus protection software, you can be certain they\u2019ve got viruses in their computer,” he said. “I\u2019ve been taking 20 to 50 viruses off computers.”<\/p>\n
People\u2019s curiosity leads many to open e-mail attachments containing viruses, he noted. Whitehead said that there is software available from Internet sources that can be used to remove viruses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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