Virus Protection

This page has been put together to assist you in avoiding viruses, as well as cleaning up after your machine has been infected.

How to avoid viruses

The golden rule of viruses is:
Prevention is better than cure. If you receive an e-mail containing a suspicious attachment that isn't expected, phone or otherwise check directly with the sender to ask if it's legitimate, before opening the attachment. This is because a number of viruses spread via email by appearing to be from a friend, therefore fooling you to open the destructive content. If it is not legitimate, contact Desktop Services Jobdesk.

Following this rule will keep you safe from the vast majority of viruses going around the internet.

SOPHOS Antivirus Software

Monash is currently using an anti-virus product called Sophos Sweep Anti Virus (Sophos SAV). Visit Installing Sophos Anti-Virus  to check that Sophos is up to date on your computer, and get instructions on how to update if not! 

Sophos Home Use

The licence that Monash ITS has for the Sophos Sweep product allows for home use. The home version of the Sophos can be found at Sophos @ Home

Scanning for Virus

Visit Sophos Sweep Usage for instructions on how to check your computer for virus infection.

Hoax Virus Information

If you receive a suspicious e-mail, please do not mail all your friends or people on your email lists as this tends to create alarm and wastes a lot of time when it may not be necessary. It can also slow down network traffic significantly.

Some e-mails you receive may be hoaxes that are mean't to look like a virus, but really aren't. They tend to suggest that if you don’t do this or that, then you could be at risk of something deleting all your files. The problem with hoaxes is they often ask you to delete files that are critical for system operation, and if you follow their instructions then you may actually damage your computer.

• Visit Latest Viruses and Hoaxes for list of current hoaxes 
• Visit ITS Virus Hoaxes for further hoax information.

Links

• Monash Alert Information Pages

  Contains information on the latest viruses.

• Monash Sophos Page

  Information on using and installing SOPHOS.

• Monash ITS site on anti-virus tools

  Information on Monash's suite of anti-virus software tools which it uses.

• SOPHOS Virus Encyclopedia

  Lists information on current viruses.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Ask us via Desktop Services Jobdesk!