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Security offered for PCs, Macs

by Clay Taylor
Office of the CIO
Internet security is becoming more of a hot topic every day. Viruses, worms, trojans, and other malware or malicious computer software are being created by the thousands each week, and MUSC employees need to take extra precautions, not only to protect themselves, but to protect patient and research data.
 
The Office of the CIO’s (OCIO) security team is striving to increase awareness and make tools readily available to our staff to prevent data theft on our campus. The OCIO’s goal is to make the campus computers more secure and to increase MUSC employee’s information security awareness. To accomplish this many tools are available at http://www.musc.edu/est.  From this site you will be able to:
  • Download Microsoft Forefront Endpoint Protection antivirus software. This is available free of charge to  MUSC students or staff for use on their home or work computers that they use to connect to MUSC resources. This software will help identify and remove malware (Viruses, worms, trojans) on your Windows PC.
  • Download ProtectMac antivirus software for Macintosh. This is available free of charge to any MUSC students or staff for Macintosh computers. This software will help identify and remove malware on your Macintosh computer.
  • Enroll your PC for Windows Updates. This is a great tool that will automatically check with our update servers to see if your Windows PC is missing any security patches and install them for you automatically. You will no longer have to manually install windows updates. This is available for both home and off-campus computers.
  • View encryption instructions for Macintosh and Windows. Laptop encryption is required by our MUSC computer use policy and HIPPAA policy for any computers that have research or patient data accessed from them. OCIO offers multiple types of encryption on campus, and will even send an engineer out to help you do this.
  • View the MUSC Computer Use Policy. This is a must read for all new employees and should be read at least once a year by all current employees.
  • Install a fix that will disable “autorun” on your Windows XP machines. As many of you know, USB (thumb drives, MP3 Players) devices are one of the biggest causes of virus outbreaks on our campus. This fix will not allow a virus to spread automatically to your PC through a USB device. All MUSC users should apply this patch to their PCs. OCIO sees hundreds of infected USB devices on campus every month, most of which were infected by a home computer. This fix will also protect your home computer from being infected by a virus that uses the autorun vulnerability to install itself without your knowledge.

Friday, Aug. 13, 2010


The Catalyst Online is published weekly by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. The Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to The Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.