Everyone has heard of computer viruses from co-workers, friends, or the media. Many people have even witnessed a virus doing damage to someone’s computer that you know or even your own. Over the past several years, the magnitude and intensity of viruses has increased dramatically. Many users on our ResNet system have become infected and have spread viruses to others on ResNet.  Such incidents could have been prevented; below you will find some advice to help you understand what viruses are and how you can protect yourself.

Computer viruses have been around since the advent of personal computing.  Check out this Computer Virus TimeLine and see for yourself!  As the Internet cotinues to expand, the dangers posed by viruses and other security risks has increased dramatically.  A dedicated connection to ResNet or off-campus broadband services, such as cable modems or DSL connections, put you at greater risk for contracting a virus or other security related problem. 

Viruses can often trick you into opening them in order to install their files on your system.  A virus can sweep through a hard drive and delete media files, vital Windows operating system components, or even personal documents stored on the computer. In some cases, they can attempt to spread themselves automatically using your computer as an aggregation point, or completely erase everything on your computer all together!  Certain viruses will leave a “back-door” open on your computer that may allow another individual to take full control, run servers, or engage in illicit activities (such as denial-of-service attacks) from your computer without your knowledge.

SUNY Oswego has licensed McAfee AntiVirus Enterprise (PC) and Virex (Mac) for faculty/staff/student use on their personally-owned computers. This software is available for download.

If your computer is connected to ResNet, uses wireless access on-campus, or uses our VPN client to connect to the network from off-campus YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE THIS ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE INSTALLED AND UPDATED FREQUENTLY! 

Just having antivirus software on your computer is not good enough.  Make sure the software is the current version and has the latest updates available.  Often, new computers come with antivirus software installed. While this is a well-meaning business practice, the software provided usually includes a time-limited "subscription" to updated definitions.  You should immediately uninstall this software when you get a new computer and install the SUNY Oswego antivirus software, which provides virus definition updates for the length of your term as a student at SUNY Oswego.  This is important, as new viruses are discovered daily and updated definitions are needed in order to detect them.