UAPB, Little Rock Schools Hit By Worm

You didn`t have to be an early bird to catch a worm. All you had to do was have an email address and a computer. The blaster worm wiggled its way into computer systems throughout arkansas even though preventative measures were in place. "Some people who have the quarantine capabilities may have still clicked on to a particular piece of mail and infected their machine," says Maurice Ficklin, Director of Technical Services at the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff. The worm does it`s damage by slowing down the computer and even keeping you from logging on. U-A-P-B wasn`t the only school affected. Officials at the Little Rock School District are throwing their hands up in frustration. "It is frustrating when you`re used to using your computer to get a lot of work done, " says Suellen Vann, Spokeswoman for the Little Rock School District. "Certainly, were right here at the beginning of the school when we`re all frantically busy it has slowed us down a bit." Most of the 60 buildings in the district were affected. Vann hopes the computers will be up and running by the time school opens next week. Most of the patches are on the system now." Says Vann. "They`re giving system instructions on how to go get things loaded onto thier individual system so slowly but surely we`re getting back to speed." Little Rock School District and UAPB hopes to have its computers cleaned by early next week. -- Filed by Dave Jordan