If you’re a student grinding through the semester’s workload, faculty preparing coursework and grading assignments, or staff trying to meet your deadlines, the last thing on your mind is probably your computer system’s safety. Well, you could be losing a lot of that hard work (not to mention your personal information) unless you take some simple precautions.

When students bring their computers from home or faculty and staff connect with their personal computers to the network, "they are exposing Adelphi's system [and each other] to everything on their computer," says Fred Hicks, Director of Network Systems. "It’s like the Wild West out there," he offers as an analogy.

While you're sleeping, working, or studying, the network is being monitored for any activity that's out of the ordinary. "When a person's computer has been infected with a virus or worm, we'll notice strange behavior, such as it trying to make a huge amount of connections," says Brian Imbriani, a Network Systems Administrator. If your connection is shut down because of a virus, Customer Services can guide you through how to clean your system and install up-to-date antivirus software.

The Adelphi mail server is bombarded with approximately 200,000 emails per day. "That number is before the spam, viruses, and phishing emails are caught," notes Imbriani. "We get only about 10,000 legitimate emails." According to Postini, a leading email management company, 90% of the world's email messages are spam, with an increase in spam from 2.5 billion messages in June 2006 to 7 billion spam messages in November 2006.

Although our Networking staff's spam/virus catch rate is already very good, they have been testing a new product for about three months, looking to improve performance. “The problem with viruses is that they're constantly morphing and revising," says Hicks. "Viruses are malicious, but spam is more intense in terms of volume—it's a never-ending war."

KEEP IT SAFE & CLEAN It's less painful than getting a flu shot. Here are some tips from the OITR on how to protect your computer and Adelphi's network from attacks. Stay up to date. Set your antivirus software to check for updates at least once a week. Installing software once is not enough, since virus attacks change constantly. Also, schedule full system scans for times when you won't be actively using your computer, then review the results for any problems. Also important is updating your operating system with any available security patches. www.update.microsoft.com. If you have a Mac, go to www.apple.com/macosx/features/security for info on how to personalize your security preferences. Disable scripting languages. This can prevent some worms from infecting your Windows-based computer and sending copies of itself to people in your address book. Windows XP & Vista use Outlook Express v6 or Windows Mail, which have scripting off by default. To make sure it is removed, open your "My Computer" folder, and select Folder Options from the Tools menu. Click on the File Types tab. Scroll to find VBScript Script File. Click Delete, and select OK to save changes Don't allow HTML email. Most sophisticated email clients allow you to choose to show the HTML when you approve that you recognize the source of the message. Doing so prevents some attackers who use are now using HTML email vulnerabilities to execute code on a recipient's computer without the victim's consent. Less threatening, but still worth pondering is that even legitimate marketers use HTML email to leave cookies on your computer to track your consumer behavior. Beware of phishing. Banks will never ask you for account info online, so don't fall for those phishing scams no matter how authentic they look. If you get such a request that asks you to confirm your account info, report it at the bank's official site, not through a link in the suspect email. Never download attachments or click links from sources you don’t know. We know you know this one already, but in this multitasking age, remember not to open your emails passively, just clicking through the list. Think of it the same way as if someone were ringing your doorbell. You'd make sure it was someone you knew first, or ask for identification. Viruses are spread through attachments, but worms can be passed through Web links to sites that are made to look like the real thing. Take notice of popups. Sometimes they're just annoying, but if you are seeing Web-like popup windows when you don't even have a browser application open, then you might have spyware hiding on your computer. Download anti-spyware software and run a system scan. Find more helpful spam info at the FTC site.

The bottom line is that if you ever see something suspicious, call Customer Services at 516.877.3340 to speak to a technician.

For software download links and helpful manuals or video tutorials, visit the Computer Support section of the OITR site: http://infotech.adelphi.edu/services