Technology Advisory Group

IR has put out a warning to all faculty about an increase in desktop computer infections this month —

During the summer months we have seen an increase in the number of computer desktops becoming infected on a daily basis. In order to limit exposure, computers that are infected must be immediately removed from the campus network until they can be remediated by a staff member of the Information Technology Services department. Depending upon the severity and nature of the infection, it may take one to two weeks to fully clean your computer and get it back to you. In preparation for the start of the fall semester, here are some things that you can do to help prevent an infection on your desktop and to protect your information.

• Do not store personally identifiable information (social security numbers, financial account numbers) on your desktop – in documents, spreadsheets, or email.
• Use Royal Drive to store personally identifiable information and any data files that you would need to continue to perform your job on a day-to-day basis if you do not have access to your desktop.
• Use Internet Explorer for accessing University systems only.
• Use the Firefox web browser with Adblock Plus for all other web browsing. Avoid the following areas of the Internet while using your University desktop — websites related to gambling, hacking, warez (illegal software), adult content, and social networking. The risk of infection to your system is particularly high from these types of sites.
• We strongly recommend that computers which are used to perform financial transactions or those known to contain personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers or financial account numbers, not be used for web browsing, instant messaging, or accessing external mail accounts.

We are working to put in place additional measures to protect your desktop over the next few weeks, including automated patching of the most vulnerable applications. In the coming months, we will be deploying other tools to help locate personally identifiable information on desktops and place additional controls on desktops accessing our network. Longer term, we are making plans and requesting resources to provide a layered defense through the use of multiple tools that will help to protect our campus desktops, ensuring our information and your productivity.

If you suspect that your computer has been compromised, contact the Technology Support Center at (941-HELP or techsupport@scranton.edu).  For more information about this and other malware threats, please contact security@scranton.edu

Anecdotally, we’ve had several computers hit here in the Library, and it takes a few days for the computer to make its way back into the Library after being cleaned up by IR.  If you’re not backing up your work, either to Royal Drive, to an external hard drive, or to some other cloud storage service, now would be a good time to start.