Local News in Brief : Computer Virus Hits Northridge Campus

Cal State Northridge officials are warning students about a computer virus that threatens to infect hundreds of Macintosh computers on the San Fernando Valley campus.

At least a dozen of the school’s Macintosh computers have been infected with the virus, known as nVIR, school officials said. The virus--a computer program that is spread from machine to machine when students swap programs recorded on infected computer disks--disrupts functions such as word processing and printing.

The nVIR bug, which apparently originated in West Germany, is different from more damaging computer viruses because it does not erase information stored on computer disks, university computer consultants said. The worst effect is that individual computers are stalled until the virus is removed.

The virus has appeared in Macintosh computers in the student bookstore, as well as the Macintosh systems used by the student government and student activities offices.