Computer security in the news
We've all heard the news stories about corporations and
universities experiencing data breaches which expose personal
data to hackers which could ultimately be used to commit identity
theft and fraud. This and future articles will describe how you
can help to make computers and data at University of Hartford
more secure.
Software updates fix security flaws
Computer software is never perfect. All
computer operating systems have flaws that hackers can exploit to
gain unauthorized access to your computer. Once your computer is
"hacked" by a hacker, or a computer virus or worm,
often the attacker can take complete control of the computer and
all of the data on it, as well as any data on servers to which
the computer is connected. The vendors of the operating system
running on your computer frequently make updates available to fix
known security flaws in the software. New flaws are detected all
of the time, and new updates are frequently made available. Does
keeping your computer up to date guarantee that it will
never fall victim to a hacker? No, however, it dramatically improves
the odds. New flaws are found, hackers begin trying to exploit
those flaws, vendors provide updates to fix the flaws (hopefully
before the hackers get too far), you install the updates to fix
the flaws -- it's a continuous game of "cat and mouse."
It is important to stay vigilant and try to keep one step ahead
of the bad guys by keeping your system up to date.
Software update requirement
An out-of-date computer on the network is more likely to be
targeted by hackers, worms, and viruses and used to access your
private information, or information on other systems to which
your computer has access, attack other computers on the network,
or attack the network itself, than a computer that is up-to-date.
A condition of connecting your computer to the
network is that you must keep your computer up-to-date with all
of the operating system vendor's security updates. Should
your computer be found to be infected with a virus, or to be
exhibiting virus-like or hacker-like activity, it will be
disconnected from the network immediately upon detection to
prevent damage to other computers, and to deny further access to
your computer and its data by its attacker.
Myth -- "My XYZ computer isn't
susceptible to hackers..."
Many people are under the impression that their Macintosh or
Linux or BSD computers are not vulnerable to attack. This simply
isn't true. With Macintosh OS X, Apple completely rewrote the
system to run on a variant of Unix called "Darwin".
While this provides a stable, high quality platform for the
operating system, it is just as likely to have the same security
flaws found in numerous other variants of Unix. The same goes for
Linux, and BSD, and any other Unix or Unix-like variant. While it
is true that the much smaller installed base of systems running
this software makes them less attractive to hackers and
virus writers, make no mistake, it is just as important to keep
these systems up-to-date. This article describes how to update
the two most popular computer operating systems in use on campus
- WindowsXP, and Macintosh OS X.
Keeping a WindowsXP computer up-to-date
On WindowsXP (and Windows 2000) computers, you can point your web
browser to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com to download and install "critical"
updates. (Or you can click "Start" and then "Windows
Update"). For more details on using Windows Update, and
configuring your computer to automatically download
critical updates and notify you when they are ready to install,
click the link below:
Updating a Macintosh OS X computer
On Macintosh OS X computers, click the "Apple" menu and
choose "Software Update...." For more details on using
Software Update, and configuring your computer to automatically
download updates and notify you when they are ready to
install, click the link below:
Where to get help
If you need help updating your computer's operating
system, contact the Computer Support Line at x5999.