UW Fights Viruses, You Should Too
Much of the email coming and going from the UW is scanned by UW Technology for viruses with the aim of stopping common viruses from getting onto UW computers. However, email scanning can only find known viruses. New viruses are being created all the time that may not be detected by the scanners. Also, viruses can get into your computer by other routes, such as through shared software or through networks you are connected to. Therefore, the email scanning service is only one of the UW's anti-virus defenses.
You need to do your part by taking steps to protect your computer from viruses.
An important first step is for you to install virus protection software such as McAffee VirusScan (for Windows) or Virex (for Macintosh), available on the UW Internet Connectivity Kit (UWICK) CD-ROM. You can purchase the UWICK at the University Bookstore or download components of it from the UWICK pages in the Software Guide.
Once you have installed your virus protection software, run it regularly to check your files and update the software and the virus description files frequently. You can configure the software to automatically do the scanning and updating on a schedule of your choosing.
What UW Email Gets Scanned
Messages scanned are those to or via "@u.washington.edu" or "@washington.edu," addresses. Departmental email which isn't forwarded via one of those domains is not scanned by UW Technology. Scanning inbound email (email from off campus) for viruses began in Fall of 2001.
On February 14th, email scanning was extended to include email sent from within the UW to outside destinations through the UW Technology managed SMTP email servers. Scanning outbound email will help to identify people in the UW community who are using infected computers so they can be notified.
About One Percent of Email Has Viruses
Of the 13 million email messages that arrived at the UW during January 2002, slightly less than one percent were found to contain viruses. For more information about which viruses were found, see the UW Virus Defense Log.
What To Do If You Get a Warning
If a virus is detected, a warning message is sent to the sender and the message is "scrubbed" - the virus is made inoperative or is deleted from the message altogether. If you receive a warning that an infected message came from your computer, you should immediately take steps to "clean out" the virus from your computer:
- Talk to your local computer support person first.
- Learn more about viruses.
- Obtain virus scanning software for your computer, such as McAffee VirusScan. Scan your computer regularly and keep up with the software and data file updates.
- Contact help@u.washington.edu if you have any further questions.
