Viruses Worm Their Way Into Tradeshows

At the Colorado Convention Center recently, one virus-infected computer in a tradeshow exhibitor's booth brought down the entire network. Harried officials were able to get it up and running again within hours, but in other instances an infection has closed down a show's network for an entire day.

When that happens, no one is happy. Exhibitors can't run their demos or get information for potential buyers. Attendees can't glimpse presentations highlighting products. Venues can't conduct business. And show managers suffer tarnished reputations and exhibitor wrath.

Because of all the consternation viruses are causing, the Colorado Convention Center is weighing a policy requiring computer subcontractors to provide licensed anti-virus software on all machines. "This is a serious problem," said Debbie Olivas, the facility's manager of technology. "We can't control every computer coming into our building."

Olivas isn't the only one concerned about viruses and worms disrupting tradeshows. Network consultants also report that the situation is escalating, fed by the volume and increasing sophistication of viruses and variants being churned out by hackers worldwide.

"They wreak total havoc on tradeshows," said Brian Backus, executive director of market development for Priority Networks, which manages networks for 20 convention centers. "It's widespread and it's not going to go away. Until computer-rental companies start patching their computers on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, it's going to continue to be a problem," he said.

Although computer-rental companies say they're trying to apply anti-virus patches as fast as hackers find new vulnerabilities, it isn't easy. Microsoft, whose software is frequently targeted, has released 40 such patches this year.

David Langford, director of technology for Smart City Networks, recently brought the virus problem to the attention of the national director of one computer-rental company. He was assured that virus-protection software was standard on all the company's devices. But the very next week, Smart City, which services 15 convention centers, had to deal with a crisis caused by 27 company computers infected with a 6-month-old worm.

Rental computers have the potential for causing large-scale disruption because companies generally install the same "image" set-up on all their machines. So there may be dozens — or even hundreds — of identically vulnerable computers on the show floor at one time.

Devices brought in by exhibitors also frequently harbor infections. Such computers often travel from tradeshow to tradeshow, rarely making it back to company headquarters for upgrade and patching. In addition, booth personnel are typically marketing — not computer — experts, and are used to functioning in a corporate environment, with protective firewalls and IT departments at their beck and call.

Besides causing headaches, escalating virus problems threaten to alter a fundamental assumption behind tradeshow computer networking. In the corporate environment, firewalls are a necessity to protect valuable company data. But in the tradeshow environment, networks have always been open.

"When it comes to a tradeshow and two or three computers at a booth, not too many people are thinking about a firewall," said Steven Blake, a meeting technology consultant with Meeting Tech Innovations of Quincy, Mass.

Typically, he said, information transmitted during a tradeshow is deemed less valuable than that transmitted within a corporation. And if a computer crashes, usually only hours — rather than weeks or months — of work is lost.

But when exhibitors are spending tens of thousands of dollars to attend a tradeshow, they expect the network to run. Network managers can only do so much to help because exhibitor computers are not their responsibility. And the intricacies of computer viruses aren't easy to explain — especially on a noisy tradeshow floor.

"With catering, I know when a pizza's black on top that it's been cooked too long. With electricity, I understand when I plug into it and the light doesn't come on that there's a problem. But it's hard to explain how one guy with a worm can bring down an entire network," said Langford. "There's no common base of knowledge."

Network managers agree that education is key. To that end, Smart City has started including "network security declarations" in the show management kits distributed to exhibitors. The declarations require exhibitors to certify that the devices they're bringing to the show contain anti-virus protection. Furthermore, they warn that exhibitors could have to pay recovery costs if any of their computers cause network difficulties.

Network companies are also trying intensive monitoring, tracking virus D-Days, circulating CD-ROMs with virus fixes and deploying additional show floor personnel — all of which cost money.

Talking is a little cheaper, said Bill Suszko, Smart City vice president of finance and administration. "Little by little, we're trying to educate our show managers. Because whether we like to face it or not, viruses are becoming more prevalent every day," he said.