The PC VS. the Common Cold

A hacker has mysteriously infiltrated your computer and inflicted it with sickness. Now it’s running slow, advertisements are popping up all over the screen, and you can’t get any work done. Many of us have experienced the aggravation and stress of this scenario. The common virus and worm infections of our beloved computers seem to be a sickness with no cure. New technologies, however, such as the HoneyNet project, have been making advances in combating these malicious software packages (commonly referred to as malware).

The HoneyNet project is designed to detect viruses and/or worms on computer networks and research how hackers act. The project also aims to find a way to remotely and anonymously fingerprint the malware on infected networks. A group of RIT students have created their own HoneyNet project here on campus. The RIT HoneyNet members are mostly full-time. Students working on the project are Josh Smith, Conner Finlay, Matt Cote, Jacob Ruppal, Brian Muller, and David Pisano.

These students, with the assistance of faculty in the Networking Security & Systems Administration department, have been planning the project for over a month and the NSSA has agreed to supply these students with the materials needed to implement the project. The group has an assortment of 12 machines set up in the projects lab at RIT, configured to operate the HoneyNet systems.

The HoneyNet exhibit will be going on throughout the day and takes place within the Computer Zone, in room 2160 in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. Visitors to the exhibit will have the chance to observe computer network and system activities performed by computer viruses, worms, or other malware. The HoneyNet members will be demonstrating live computer malware activities captured on the Internet. For more information regarding the HoneyNet project and to view project data you can visit their website at www.honeynet.rit.edu.