ARE YOU PRONE TO VIRUS ATTACKS

The virus has made its mark on LSUHSC-S computers in the past and is currently a little more than just a nuisance. Many hours have been spent by us chasing down rogue machines that are playing havoc on the network. We try to stop them when they enter the LSUHSC-S network, but there are always some that sneak through. E-Mail, file sharing, surfing the web… it all adds up.

YES! There is no such thing as a risk free PC.
A common mistake is believing that this protects you from anything. The virus of today will come at you from all directions and is updated daily with new tricks that make it difficult to avoid. McAfee updates its list of known viruses once a week with special emergency updates when a particular damaging virus is found. BUT, if the virus finds you before the update, it could delete your ability to update, or the programs that take care of the scanning. Several things that we do everyday make us vulnerable. E-Mail is the most common, but you can feel a little safer knowing that the server that we use is always scanning everything that comes into the institution, blocking certain attachments and scanning all others. But new viruses are being created constantly and somebody has to get it first. File Sharing is also quite prevalent and is often one of the ways we know that there is a rogue machine out there. ***Password protect ALL folders that you are sharing. Viruses can search out unprotected folders across network shares and wreak havoc on them. Web Pages can be embedded with programs that will copy themselves to your hard drive and set to automatically run when you start up your machine. Some of these are not viruses, but act just like them. *** This last one is a special one that works its way through email but counts on the unknowing user to help it along. These will never be stopped by Anti-Virus software. If you ever get a message (from somebody you know) that tells you to forward their message to everyone in your address book, because they had a virus and it emailed itself to you, don’t do anything drastic. Call the helpdesk or check the McAfee and Norton websites for a reference to the message. Don’t worry if the message says that they don’t know about it yet, check anyway. ALWAYS VERIFY!!!

Easy, never turn on your machine. Ok, that’s not going to fly in today’s office, but 100% is unattainable. However, don’t lose sleep over it. First, make sure that your virus scan software is updating. Don’t know how? Check our online newsletters for instructions on setting up and configuring McAfee, or call the helpdesk at x55470, menu option #2. It will take only a minute to verify everything is setup properly. Second, always follow at least the minimum security measures that are at your disposal. Not sure how? Check our online newsletters for information, or call the helpdesk at x55470, menu option #2. Setting up or changing passwords is quite simple once you know how. Third, know your system and tendencies/patterns. Just because you get email doesn’t mean you have to read it all. If you don’t know who it is, or don’t remember requesting any information from some company, don’t open it. Feel safer when opening email from other LSUHSC-S employees knowing that their system is under the same security as your own. You may want to turn off Auto-preview in your Microsoft Outlook if you haven’t already. Be careful of thinking that you are too safe from being affected, no plan is foolproof. So, don’t be the one that proves it.

For assistance with this or any other question or problem, please call the Desktop Support Helpdesk at x55470, menu option #2, or email us at SHV PC HELPDESK