Viruses-Information Technology Services

A key layer of protection for your machine is anti-virus software. Anti-Virus software runs on your machine constantly monitoring for any virus or worm-type activity. If this type of activity is detected, you will receive a warning from the program with a request to delete the infected files or you can set it up to delete it automatically without confirmation.
Viruses (real and hoaxes) are an ever-growing problem on the Internet, and present an ever-growing problem for end-users and IT departments. Through a site-license acquired by ITS, ENC provides Sophos Anti-Virus software to the College community at no cost to the individual.
In order to install Sophos on your computer, your computer will need to be connected to the ENC network. Installation of Sophos is restricted to current ENC students, faculty and staff only.

What is a computer virus?

Computer viruses are harmful programs designed to alter the way your computer operates without your permission. A more complete definition can be found at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/v/virus.html

How do I install Anti-Virus?

ENC provides free Anti-Virus software [Sophos] to current ENC students, faculty and staff. In order to install Sophos, you will need to register your computer with us. Once the registration is complete, Sophos will automatically install on your computer and look for an update everytime you boot the computer. Click here to register today!!

There is no need to panic. If you think your computer is infected or compromised otherwise, unplug your ethernet cable from the network. Record any errors messages that you receive. Make sure that your anti-virus software is up-to-date. If you are sure that your anti-virus software is up-to-date, run a complete scan of your system. Follow these instruction to run the anti-virus.

Click on Start->All Programs->Sophos Anti-Virus->Sophos Anti-Virus.

Sophos Anti-Virus should be configured to scan all files. Follow the instructions to make sure that Sophos has been configured to scan all files. Click here for instruction to configure your Sophos.

• Click Options from the menu.
• Click on Configurations.
• Make sure that the scanning level is set to Full and Priority to Normal.
• Check the remaining boxes.
• Now go to the Action tab.
• Check on ALL the boxes: Disinfect boot sectors, disinfect documents, disinfect programs, disinfect mailboxes, infected files (check the delete box)
• Press OK.
• Click on GO to scan your computer.

The anti-virus software will delete the infected file from your computer. After the software has finished scanning, reboot the computer and run the software again to make sure your computer is virus-free. If you're still not sure your machine is clean and uncompromised, contact ITS HelpDesk at Ext: 3727.

Sophos is installed, but my computer still got infected. How could that happen?

It is very important that you keep your virus definitions up-to-date. If your settings are configured correctly, Sophos automatically searches for any updates and downloads them. When you boot the computer, you should see a screen that shows that the computer is connected to the ENC Network and Sophos is being updated. If you do not notice this screen, chances are that your computer is not setup properly.

Learn how to install Sophos. Read More ťť

Learn how to configure Sophos. Read More ťť

Many viruses and worms that are out today harvest addresses from multiple locations. E-mail address books and websites are two of the most frequent sources. If someone had your e-mail address in his or her address book and his or her machine was infected, it could have been obtained in that way. It could also have been harvested from a website. If a person with an infected computer viewed a web page where your address was listed, it could have been obtained in that manner.

There is the possibility that someone you know inadvertently sent you a virus-infected message. However, there are also some tricky viruses that embed trusted names in the From line of the messages they send to make it look like a legitimate message and to trick you into opening the infected attachments they carry.

For example, viruses like these could use the name of a well-known company, addresses grabbed from your own address book, or the name of the company or school attached to your own e-mail.

If you receive ANY message that you aren't expecting that asks you to open an attached file (especially one that ends in .exe, pif or .sit), you should be suspicious. Before you open any attachments like these, you should either check with the person who sent it to make sure it's legitimate, or play it safe and simply delete it.

I have received Virus Alert messages regarding e-mails that I never sent. I don't know the people the message was going to. What's going on?

There are a couple of ways that this can happen. First, there are viruses which send out mail automatically to addresses in your address book, or from websites in your cache. So, if your computer is infected, you wouldn't know that you had sent the messages. The other possibility is that there are some viruses which forge the "From:" line of messages using the same random selection of e-mail addresses as above.

I didn't open the attachment that was with the message. Does that mean that my computer is not infected?

It depends. If you do not have the feature enabled that allows you to view .html images in your e-mail, you might be safe. Most of the time you actually have to open the attachment in order to activate the virus. You should run your anti-virus software anyway, just to be sure.

You should never double-click on an attachment that contains an executable that arrives as an e-mail attachment. Attachments that come in as Word files (.DOC), spreadsheets (.XLS), images (.GIF and .JPG), etc., are data files and they can do no damage (noting the macro virus problem in Word and Excel documents mentioned above). A file with an extension like EXE, COM or VBS is an executable, and an executable can do any sort of damage it wants. Once you run it, you have given it permission to do anything on your machine. The only defense is to never run executables that arrive via e-mail.

I opened an e-mail attachment I wasn't expecting...does that mean that my computer is infected?

Possibly. You should immediately run anti-virus software on your computer.

If I ran my anti-virus software on the file, and it says that it has been cleaned, is it OK to open it?

It depends. If you were expecting to receive the attachment and you know the person, then yes. If you were not expecting the attachment and you don't know the sender, we would recommend that you do not open the file. If you were not expecting the file, but you know the sender, you should check with the person first, just to make sure that they actually did send it to you and to alert them that their computer may be infected.

My computer was infected and sent infected messages out to everyone in my address book! What do I do now?

You should alert those in your address book that your computer has been compromised and advise them to check their computer for any presence of a virus or worm.

I'm running Windows XP; is there anything specific I should do to keep my computer virus-free?

Yes. If you are using Windows XP, you need to disable System Restore to make sure that the virus files you remove are not restored when you restart your computer. To do so, follow the instructions available at the Symantec website.

If I install an Anti-Virus program, do I no longer need to worry about getting viruses?

No. But you will be protected as long as you keep your anti-virus program up to date. Virus definitions "teach" your virus software about new viruses.

What are the symptoms and indications of a virus infection?

Symptoms may include, but are not limited to, computer becoming sluggish, applications may begin to exhibit abnormal behavior, e-mail recipients complain that they are receiving messages from you that you know you did not send. There is no foolproof method to determine if your computer is infected.

What can I do to protect my Windows computer from viruses and other attacks?

Click here for safe computing guide.