On April 2, Wal-Mart ran a nationwide advertisement in college newspapers that included a compact disc with music, music videos and movie and video game previews. One month later, University chemistry Professor John Hardwick discovered the distributed CD carried a file of unknown origin.
Hardwick said a student put one of the CDs in a lab computer out of curiosity, and immediately Norton AntiVirus launched, detected a virus and warned the user. He said he then reported it to the University's computing center.
University Microcomputer Services, through Norton AntiVirus, verified a program titled "TagRecall.exe" existed at the base level of the CD and was infected with a "trojan horse," a file containing data that, when triggered, could cause loss or theft of data. The trojan horse spreads when a user invites the program onto their computer, either by opening an e-mail attachment or downloading and running a file from the Internet.
Patrick Chinn, a network consultant with the Computing Center, submitted the file to Symantec, a company that produces software utilities such as Norton AntiVirus. He later received an automated reply confirming it was a trojan horse, but Symantec failed to supply the exact type of trojan horse that existed in the file. Because of this lack of information, it is unclear whether the file actually does any damage.
Chinn added that if one CD is infected with a trojan horse, then most likely all of the CDs that were distributed were infected.
"The CDs are commercially reproduced," he said. "Each copy contains the same stuff.
Karen Burk, the public relations manager for Wal-Mart, denied that the CD contained a virus. However, she said it contained a program that allowed Wal-Mart to receive information to better improve the program.
"We are not aware of any viruses on any of the CDs," she said. She said if a person does have
difficulties with the CD, they can call 1-800-WAL-MART, adding that no one has complained about the CD yet.
However, Robert McCaleb of Boulder, Colo., said he complained to Wal-Mart twice about the CD. McCaleb, who received a copy of the CD from The Colorado Daily -- the University of Colorado campus newspaper -- said the CD installs a program on the computer as soon as the disk is placed in the CD-ROM drive.
McCaleb also said he thinks TagRecall.exe may not be a trojan horse but spyware, which could register as a virus in programs such as Norton AntiVirus. Spyware is defined as any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge.On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties and can get into a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program.
The cover of the Wal-Mart advertisement has a disclaimer stating, "This CD-ROM has been checked with virus-checking programs and duplicated under strict quality controls. Wal-Mart will not accept any responsibility for any damage or loss caused through the use of this CD-ROM."
Microcomputing Services Manager Dan Albrich ran the CD on two different computers in the Computing Center, one with a Windows 98 platform and one with a Windows 2000 platform. After running the CD program, Albrich then searched the computer hard drive for any spyware the Wal-Mart CD may have put onto the computer system. On both computers, no spyware was found.
However, when the program was run on the Windows 2000 platform, it did open up an Internet connection -- but there was no way to a Web site or owner of the address. Albrich is investigating the unknown address.
Symantec also said in their response that "D:\TagRecall.exe is a non-repairable threat. (Norton AntiVirus) with the latest beta definition detects this. Please delete this file and replace it if necessary."
Danette Thompson, a Wal-Mart public relations representative, echoed Burk's remarks, saying she wasn't sure why TagRecall.exe would be called a trojan horse, but she was sure no virus existed on the CD. She said Wal-Mart might look more seriously into the possible problem if the company planned on distributing the CD again, which it isn't planning to do.
Albrich said students should scan their computers for viruses with Norton AntiVirus if they have used the Wal-Mart CD and think they might have a trojan horse.
The computing center "doesn't know everything about it," Albrich said. "But users are best protected by having Norton AntiVirus installed."
Contact the reporter
at alishaughnessy@dailyemerald.com.
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