Protecting Your Home Computer

The IT department takes many steps to ensure the security of the department's data and to make sure malicious software will not affect department computers. These steps are just as important for your home computer as it is for departmental computers. Here are some things you can do to help ensure your data will be kept safe.

Installing Antivirus Software

We recommend using the same software we use here in the department, Symantec, which is free for all Virginia Tech faculty, staff and students and is avaiable here.

1. Download the installation package from here. Click the first download link in the "Windows" column to get the latest version.
2. Once the download completes, open the program and Symantec will do all the rest for you.
3. The installer will probably ask you to reboot, and once you reboot, Symantec will be running and will automatically download and instal the latest virus definitions for you every day.

That was pretty easy, wasn't it?

Finding and Removing Spyware

The current program we recommend for spyware search and removal is Windows Defender.

1. Go here to download the installation package. Microsoft may ask you to verify that you have a genuine copy of Windows. The intructions vary depending on which browser you have, but Microsoft will provide detailed steo-by-steo instructions for you.
2. Once you're all verified and have downloaded the file, run the program you have just downloaded.
3. Click Next, and accept the license agreement.
4. Now you will see three choices about how Windows Defender will download the updates.
   For simplicity's sake, we're going to choose Install definition updates only.
5. Next, choose the Complete install so you will have all of the components you may need.
6. Click Install, and setup will install the program.
7. After the installation completes, you will see this:
   Leave this box checked so we can go ahead and update the spyware definitions and run a quick scan to see if you have aquired any malicious software that needs to be removed.

Turning on Windows Firewall

Turning on the Windows Firewall will not only disallow hackers and some forms of malware from penetrating your computer on remote ports, but it will also let you configure which software you want accessing the Internet. This is useful because there may be programs installed on your computer that intent on sending your private information to another computer over the Internet.

So, to turn on Windows Firewall:

1. Go to Start, Settings, and open the Control Panel.
2. If it's not already in the classic view, click the Switch to Classic View on the left pane so it will be easier to find what we want.
3. Open the Security Center. If your firewall is currently off, you should see something like this:
   
4. If your firewall is off, click on the Windows Firewall link at the bottom. You will see a dialog like this:
   As you can see, we want the On option selected. Then press OK.
5. After the last step, the Windows Firewall section of the Security Center should look like this:
   

Turning on Automatic Updates

Every so often, Microsoft releases security patches that need to be installed in order to plug new holes found in the operating system. Without these patches, it is easier for your system to be penetrated and will not be protected efficiently. You can tell Windows to automatically download and install these updates for you; here's how:

1. Just like in the last section, we're going to want to go to the Security Center in the Control Panel.
2. Once you're there and you have Automatic Updates currently off, you should see something like this:
   
3. To turn Automatic Updates on, click on the Automatic Updates link at the bottom. You will see a dialog like this:
   Once in the dialog, turn on Automatic Updates and choose when it would be best for Windows to download and these updates, and click OK.
4. Once you're done with that, Automatic Updates should appear as "ON" in the Security Center:
   

Backing Up Your Files

We get many cases in which someone will bring a computer with which all we can do is erase the hard drive and start all over. If you take the steps above, this case becomes more and more unlikely. But in the event that this does happen, it's always nice to have a backup of all of your important data. Here are some backup options you can consider:

• Keep important files on a USB flash drive, as well as your computer.
• Burn CDs of your data. Burn them weekly if the documents often change.
• Burn to CD-RWs so you recylce the CDs.
• Look into online backup companies which will back up your data to a server online.

Whichever you decide to do, just make sure you have at least two copies of each file. One file on your computer to work on, and other on a separate piece of media or on a separate computer. Data is backed up regularly here in the department for items in your My Documents folder, so no need to worry about files here.