Anti-virus
Anti-virus protection is usually provided in the form of purchased software that you install on your machine. There are free packages available to download which offer limited protection: links to suppliers are available in the 'How to help yourself' page.
These packages work by scanning your machine for viruses and carrying out complete scans of your entire machine on a periodic basis. We strongly recommend that you get into the habit of running this manually once a week: there will be instructions within your software as to how do to this.
The software will also scan your incoming emails for viruses in attached files and check any files you open or create to make sure they are safe. As part of your package the manufacturer will send you regular updates to ensure that you are protected against the latest versions of viruses in circulation. If you don't keep your anti-virus software up to date, it's as good as useless!
University provided desktops and laptops have anti-virus software installed which is updated regularly and scans your machine and your emails for any potential issues.
Anti-virus software can offer protection against:
- Malicious email attachments
- Infections picked up at suspect or corrupt web pages
- The type of virus referred to as a 'worm'
- Viruses contracted from certain types of documents
- Some also protect you against spyware.
- Trojans contained within 'free' executable files (dancing teddy bear anyone!?!)
Whilst it is an important and valuable form of defence, it's not infallible and won't give you protection against:
- Programs that you actively install that may contain unwanted features that aren't made clear to you
- Spam
- Fraud or online criminal activity
- Attempts to break into your machine by hackers (that's where a personal firewall and strong password are useful!)
If you don't have anti-virus software on your machine and it is infected by a virus you could find yourself vulnerable to some, if not all of the following:
- Identity theft: someone taking your personal details and using them to establish a 'new' persona, with your name
- Fraud: often linked to identity theft, this could include getting credit and goods in your name and then not paying for them
- Loss of data: your data could be damaged or wiped
- A slow or unusable computer: your machine could host viruses which slow it down to the extent that it becomes unusable
- The risk that the virus will send itself to all the contacts in your address book - so they'll potentially suffer too!
- From our point of view, they disrupt users and interfere with the running of University systems.