A recent internet attack on Google has left many users susceptible to an infiltration of their personal e-mail accounts.

According to several news sources, a code was released in China to hack into Gmail accounts. This access code has now been made public on the Internet.

In a recent article, the BBC stated that this code was created in order to hack into human rights activists' mailboxes. According to Fox News, nations attack other nations through cyber warfare.

"The exploit allows hackers to put up a Web page embedded with the malicious code that will infect the unpatched machines of [people] visiting it without that person's having to do anything at all," said Dean Halter, IT risk management officer of UDit. "Hackers often employ social engineering techniques to convince folks to open attachments or visit malicious sites masquerading as legit and official."

Microsoft issues patches on the second Tuesday of every month, Halter said. However, because of this recent attack, Microsoft released a patch out of the monthly cycle due to the code's malicious intent.

Halter said that hackers attempt to retrieve information through corporate and personal computers in order to sell or gain control over computers they can then use to carry out spamming, Distributed Denial of Service attacks and forms of overtaking.

"I would hate for that to happen," said sophomore Lauren Berndt. "Gmail is such an awesome tool for communication purposes, and I would hate to have my personal life broken into and have to stop using it due to these issues."

According to Halter, this situation has not caused many problems for users. Some Google users have had subject lines and dates compromised, but not the messages themselves.

"Google indicated there was evidence that other accounts might have been accessed, but most likely these were due to the users having their passwords compromised separately in a phishing scheme or something of that nature," Halter said. "In the end, this particular attack may have done more good than bad with all the attention it received."

Halter said that as of now, there is no evidence that a UD student's personal Gmail account has been affected.

"The Clean Access NAC implementation we went through last fall allows us to enforce some minimal policy to make sure folks are using antivirus software and make sure they are getting patches from Microsoft," Halter said.

UDit has constructed a layered security program to provide the community with current software and patches, antivirus software, the Cisco NAC agent, restricted access to UD community members, filter through spam mail, as well as maintaining an intrusion prevention system. He advises students and faculty to use antivirus software, to keep software patched and to use a firewall and strong passwords.

"Don't reply to e-mails asking for passwords or sensitive information such as passwords, social security numbers or financial account information," Halter said. "Believe it or not, about five percent of folks respond with this information if asked by a half-way decent scam mail."

If students or faculty have problems with their personal Gmail account, Google has provided the public with a help forum. Halter also recommends a password change.

For more information, go to http://www.google.com/support.