Information for Nebula Clients
Protecting Your Home PC
IT Connect > Software and Hardware > Nebula > Protecting Your Home PC
Virus Protection
Your home computer can become a means by which Nebula computers become infected by malware. Please take care to ensure personal computers at home or elsewhere that you use to connect to the UW are protected from viruses.
Also please remember that unless a home PC is purchased and maintained by the University for work-related purposes, the Nebula support team cannot assist you in obtaining or installing software, or troubleshooting problems. That said, these are some recommendations for protecting your home PC.
- Get and install a reputable anti-virus program, and update the virus definitions regularly with information about new viruses -- at least every week, possibly every day. Many antivirus programs allow this update task to be performed automatically. See the Tools for Safe and Secure Computing page, which has a link to virus software you can use on your home computer.
- NEVER ACCEPT UNSOLICITED ATTACHMENTS, not even from those you know and trust; if in doubt, contact the sender via email or phone, to find out if they intended to send an attachment and what it contains.
- Avoid dubious web sites which might infect or damage your computer. You can configure your browser to disable 'active content' (Java, JavaScript, ActiveX, etc) for unfamiliar web sites. Let others try new web sites first.
- If you get an email warning about a virus, DO NOT FORWARD IT! Consult the McAfee site for information on handling viruses and virus hoaxes.
How do I know if a virus warning is legitimate?
Check with a reputable anti-virus authority such as McAfee for virus alerts and virus hoaxes to determine if the risk warned against is a known virus, worm, or other 'mal-ware', or if it is a hoax. It may take a day or two after the first appearance of a new virus for information about it to appear on these web sites. Other reputable sources are:
Personal Firewalls
To further protect your home computer, you may wish to install a personal firewall. If you are using a Windows computer, we recommend the Windows firewall. For information on personal firewalls, please see:
Protect Against Identity Theft
Identify theft is becoming more common, and can have long-lasting consequences. Carefully checking your credit report on a regular basis can help you identify wrong information that could be a result of identify theft. Visit the U.S. Federal Trade Commission site on identity theft for more information.
Here's an excerpt from one of the warnings on the ID Theft home page about a common scam:
"If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) sends you an e-mail stating that your 'account information needs to be updated,' or that 'the credit card you signed up with is invalid or expired, and the information needs to be reentered to keep your account active,' do not respond without checking with your ISP first."
