Hampshire College

Anti-Virus Software

The college utilizes Sophos Anti-Virus. The Information Technology staff installs this software, configured with automatic daily updates, on all college-owned computers. It is also available free of charge for installation by students as well as by faculty and staff on their personal or home computers. See the link on the left menu for detailed information and installation instructions for your operating system. Although we do not support other anti-virus solutions, students may use them as long as they are kept up to date.

An Ounce of Prevention

In addition to having active and up-to-date anti-virus software installed on your computer and running spyware detection software, there are other habits you can develop to minimize the risk of getting infected. Think of it as defensive driving.

• If your computer is a Windows PC, make sure you run Windows Update regularly, or set it to AutoUpdate. This keeps your computer patched against the newly discovered security flaws that viruses exploit.
• To run Windows update manually, open the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, click on Tools and you will find Windows Update in the menu. At the Windows Update page, choose whether to use the Express or Custom install and install any “High Priority Updates”.
• You can also set Windows XP to AutoUpdate. Right click on My Computer and select Properties from the popup menu. Click on the AutoUpdates tab to locate the AutoUpdate settings. The recommended setting is to “Download the updates for me, but let me choose when to install them.” If you use this setting, please don’t ignore the notification that updates are ready to be installed. You will see an icon in the system tray near the clock that looks like a shield (XP SP2) or a globe (XP SP1).
• Viruses that spread through attachments often “spoof” another person’s e-mail address. So don’t open an attachment simply because it looks as though it is coming from someone you know.
• Read license agreements before downloading and installing any software on your computer, unless you are certain that it is from a trusted source. This will often tell you what other software installs, advertising or data collection you are agreeing to by installing the intended software. File sharing software such as Kazaa is notorious for containing additional programs in the download.
• You’ve heard the line, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, there may be, but there’s certainly no such thing as a free gift on the Internet. There are always strings attached. Be sure you are willing to “pay” the price of poor computer performance and/or sharing your personal information with often unscrupulous businesses when you respond to online offers.
• Free screensavers are another variation on this theme of vulnerability. They look nice to hook you in, but there is probably a catch. Read their privacy policy thoroughly before agreeing to download anything. You may be surprised by what you find.
• When surfing the Internet, if a window pops up offering services or software, close the window using the X in the upper right corner of the window. Some scammers make the Yes, No and Cancel buttons all behave as if you’d clicked Yes.