What About My Home PC?
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Virus protection
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 UW Internet Connectivity page for information on the UW Internet Connectivity Kit (UWICK), which contains virus software that can be used 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:
- Virus Bulletin Home Page http://www.virusbtn.com/
- Sophos Virus Information http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/
- University of Michigan Virus Busters http://www.itd.umich.edu/virus-busters
- F-Secure : Security Information Center http://www.f-secure.com/virus-info/
- U.S. DOE-CIAC (Computer Incident Advisory Center) http://www.ciac.org/ciac/
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:
- ZoneAlarm personal firewall http://www.zonelabs.com/
- Gibson Research Corporation's Shields Up! http://grc.com/
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. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has set up a central web site for information about identity theft at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
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."
