Tips for Avoiding Malware Infections

Below are some recommendations for reducing the risk of malware infections to your PC or Mac.  Many of these were discussed in the recent Staff Development Week presentation on “Immunizing Your Computer in Today’s Online World“. General Keep Patches Up to Date Operating system –AND- applications e.g., Adobe Reader & Flash, QuickTime, Java, etc. Use latest browsers with patches up to date – Currently (1/12/11):  Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 9.0.1, Safari 5.1.2 – Don’t run Safari on Windows Use Anti-virus  -AND-  Anti-spyware Keep signatures up to date Run scans regularly Macs Too!!  (Sophos.com has free A/V for Macs under “Free … Continue reading Tips for Avoiding Malware Infections

SwatFiles

Swarthmore ITS is pleased to announce the launch of SwatFiles, a secure web-based file storage system for faculty, staff, and students. Available at swatfiles.swarthmore.edu, SwatFiles allows users to access their files from any computer with an Internet connection and share files with anyone with an e-mail address. Features include: A personal folder for all faculty, staff, and students: 4GB of storage for faculty and staff, 1GB for students A public folder for sharing information with others or publishing web pages Department and committee folders can be created by contacting the Help Desk Automatic e-mail notifications when sharing files To start … Continue reading SwatFiles

Serious Unpatched Security Vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat

UPDATE #2: Adobe has now released patches for versions 7, 8 and 9 of Acrobat and Reader for both Windows and Mac platforms. Please refer to the links below. Click here for Windows Click here for Mac UPDATE #1: Adobe has released version 9.1 for Windows and Mac platforms. A patch for older versions is expected on or around March 25th. If you’re running version 9, you can open your existing Adobe application and then click on ‘Check for Updates’ in the Help menu. You can also get the update directly from their website (you must already be at version … Continue reading Serious Unpatched Security Vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Acrobat

1/16 – Meeting Maker Upgrade 8.7.1

On Friday, January 16, 2009 Meeting Maker will be unavailable from approximately 5:00 AM until 9:00 AM for an upgrade. After the Meeting Maker server is upgraded, the client software that you use to access it will also need to be upgraded. For Windows users, this process will be initiated automatically when you attempt to log once the server is back online. Macintosh users can proceed with upgrading their clients manually. Links to documentation are available on the ITS website to walk you through these processes. It covers both Windows and Macintosh as well as Palm installations. If you have … Continue reading 1/16 – Meeting Maker Upgrade 8.7.1

Important (but easy) Tips for Office Computer Security

Hackers especially love the holidays because there are lots of new, unprotected computers to compromise and silently take over. Even without new computers to exploit, there has been an alarming increase in the amount of malware (viruses, spyware, etc.) being installed recently on Swarthmore community systems. The following tips will help keep your existing computer (regardless of operating system), and especially new out-of-the-box systems, more resistant to viruses, spyware and other malware. These tips are crucial to protecting the contents and integrity of your office computer. Of course, these tips also apply to your home computer. For more security tips, … Continue reading Important (but easy) Tips for Office Computer Security

Tis the Season to… PATCH!

There have been a lot of patches/fixes released recently for various applications and operating systems. It’s ALWAYS important to apply these patches as soon as they become available. Why? Because someone somewhere will be trying to compromise your computer via these unpatched weaknesses. Most often, simply browsing a web site can be enough to infect your machine. Some operating systems and applications are pretty good at automatically upgrading when patches become available. Others, not so much. One recently released, important patch is the fix for Internet Explorer’s latest security hole. If configured correctly, your Windows PC should’ve already downloaded and … Continue reading Tis the Season to… PATCH!