Virus Protection

The recent volume of computer virus and worm attacks on computers all over the world and the impact this has had on the UCAR have raised everyone's awareness of the degree of disruption these attacks can cause. DSG is constantly in the process of keeping computers up-to-date with the most recent security patches and virus protection software. Email viruses have posed much less of a threat since the installation of our central email scanning program (Sophos), but we will be working on equally effective ways to prevent infection from new Internet worms that may arise.

The UCAR Computer Security Advisory Committee (CSAC) has two full-time employees working on securing the UCAR computers and networks. As updates on new virus attacks occur, these security administrators administer alerts to UCAR system administrators. These have given DSG adequate time to ward-off virus attacks. The UCAR security administrators were able to devise a way to quickly identify an infected computer and shut down its network connection until the machine was virus-free and patched to prevent re-infection.

For users of computers running Windows NT, 2000, or XP, there is a dedicated DSG server, which automatically downloads the latest virus definitions and security patches.

There are certain things that DSG can do to protect your computer, but every computer user must also be educated to the risks of virus infection and the behaviors that invite viruses into your machine. Click on the links below for further virus-related information.

Virus Frequently Asked Questions
General tips on avoiding virus infections