The Carleton University IT environment is not like a home network or most corporate networks in that computers are constantly joining and leaving our network. This poses an ongoing risk that these computers will introduce new viruses into our network.
With respect to viruses, it is important to be aware that:
- The impact of having your PC infected varies, depending on the virus. A virus may negatively affect your computer in various ways such as corruption or loss of your data, monitoring of your activities (including logging keystrokes) by a hacker; or use of your PC to attack another computer.
- There are new viruses released onto the Internet on daily basis. Your virus scanning solution must be updated regularly to ensure that your PC is not vulnerable to the most recent viruses.
- Once a virus enters our environment, it can spread very quickly. If your PC is not protected, it will likely be infected.
- Symantec is the official anti virus solution available on campus. It is available for use by faculty and staff as well as students who live in residence.
How to Protect your computer against viruses:
- Install antivirus software to protect against viruses, worms and other malicious software.
- Beware of viruses contained within emails. Never open an email attachment from a sender you do not know or trust.
- Be careful of what you download off the internet. Only download files from trusted sources.
- Scan your usb to ensure that viruses are not picked up from other computers.