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Safe Computing home
Get protected. Get connected.

Backups
Always have at least two copies

Best practices
Keep your computer safe

Campus Manager
Register your computer

Malware
Aka spyware or adware

Passwords
Why and how to choose a strong one

Updates
Why bother with these

Viruses
Keep your computer healthy

 

 

Safe Computing - Viruses

 

A virus is a program that replicates itself and tries to infect other computers. They are usually malicious in intent. While very few viruses are actually designed to hurt your computer or delete files, most of them cause damage anyway. They make your computer run slower and crash more often. Some viruses send spam, and others collect personal information. In any case, they are all bad news and you don't want to risk having your computer infected.

If your computer is infected, you might notice some symptoms:

  • Your computer is running slowly.
  • Your virus scanner has ceased updating or has an error message on it.
  • There are strangely named programs running, and you can't cancel them.

Prevention

Even if you are very good about your Web browsing and e-mail habits, your computer still might get infected by a virus. There are 2 things you need to do to protect yourself.

  • Apply operating system updates whenever they are available.
  • Install a virus scanner.

The first item is covered on this page, above. The second item is the more important of the two. Virus scanners can detect incoming viruses and disable them before they infect your computer. They can also delete viruses that have already infected your computer. Macalester provides students, staff and faculty with Symantec (Norton) Antivirus, free of charge.

Get and Use Symantec Antivirus

Cleaning

If you've already got a virus on your computer, please try to clean it off yourself. See the following documentation for instructions:

If you are unable to clean the virus off of Windows XP with Symantec Antivirus, download the STINGER tool, reboot into Safe Mode and then run the STINGER tool.

If you are still unable to remove the virus on your own, please contact the Help Desk for additional assistance.

 

  


 
 

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