Back to school season continues in North America, and more universities are taking stronger actions concerning unpatched and infected computers. At least two universities are now charging students $25-$30 everytime their computers are infected and need to be cleaned before being allowed back on the school network. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25845-2003Sep4.html

More than 6,000 students that had yet to apply the needed patches did so, but hundreds of other students ignored the advice and were promptly booted from the university network, said Gerry Sneeringer, an IT security officer at Maryland's Office of Information Technology.

"There were a certain percentage of students that wouldn't listen to us unless we hit them upside the head with a lockout," he said. "You simply can't deal with these problems until you've got your network under control."

Universities have one big advantage; they are a campus and can distribute CDROMs with the fix or have students come to the computer center.