A malicious email infected several hundred computers used by UF faculty and staff Monday morning.
Just before 10:30 a.m., the UF Information Security staff became aware of a large amount of emails containing an attached malicious code being distributed in the UF mail system, UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes wrote in an email.
“One particular aspect of the malware that we observed is that it is used to distribute bulk email spam,” she said.
UF is attacked from outside sources daily, she said, and nearly all of it is blocked.
This case was no different: The email and infected computers were contained within an hour of initial notification through both email filters and network blocks, Derrius Marlin, UF data security specialist, wrote in an email.
On Tuesday, the UF Information Technology staff restored the infected devices, analyzed malware to better understand its capabilities, worked to determine how it entered the system and worked to implement safeguards to better protect email users from email threats, Sikes said.
The UFIT staff was notified as to which of the computers under their management were infected, taking steps to rebuild and restore them, Marlin said.
UFIT works hard at protecting its users from threats external to its network. As a result of this incident, UF will explore options to better protect users from email threats internally distributed, he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 1/28/2015 under the headline “Malware infects computers on campus through email"]
