Security Questions

Anti-virus Software

What is it?
Anti-virus software protects email, instant messages, and other files by removing viruses and worms. It might also quarantine infected files, to keep a virus from spreading on your computer, and can repair infected files so you can use them without fear of damaging your computer or spreading a virus to others.

What risks are involved?
If your computer isn't fortified against the most recent viruses, you leave your system wide open for every bug, worm, and virus floating around the Internet. These debilitating bugs and viruses can cause your computer to malfunction. They might make your computer vulnerable to identity thieves and hackers.

What can I do to protect myself?
Install anti-virus software on your computer and run daily updates. The campus provides free anti-virus for staff and faculty work computers, and recommends free anti-virus software for student and home computers. See the Software License Coordination website.

How do I know if I have anti-virus software on my computer?
A computer with a properly installed anti-virus software will generally prompt you to update the program every once in a while. If your computer doesn't ask you to update virus definitions, you might not have properly installed virus software. Some common antivirus packages include Sophos, McAfee, and TrendMicro.

Confidential Data Storage

What is it?

Confidential data is any information you don't want others to obtain without your permission, including (but not limited to) your Social Security number, home address, phone numbers of friends/family/colleagues/students, your driver's license or bank account numbers, a list of your passphrases, your home address or phone numbers, your employee ID number, digital images, word documents containing personal text, etc. Most people store confidential data of some kind on their computers within Word files, address books, or application settings.

What risks are involved?

If unauthorized persons gain access to the confidential information you are storing, they could alter the information or use it to commit identity theft.

What can I do to protect myself?

Ø     Only store confidential information on your computer if it is absolutely necessary.

Ø     Store confidential information on portable media, such as a CD or flashdrive. Secure the portable media in a locked cabinet when it is not being used.

Ø     Encrypt files containing confidential data. Encryption is available on some operating systems. Refer to your operating system help center for instructions.

Ø     Physically secure your computer (laptop or desktop) to the desk where it sits. For about $30, you can buy a simple cable lock (similar to a bike lock) at any tech-supply store that will deter and usually prevent theft.

Ø     Set your computer to ask you for an account passphrase at login. If someone is sneaking onto your computer, this tactic will prevent them from gaining access to your files. For instructions on setting passphrases, refer to your operating system help center.

Be sure to disable the "Guest" account, as use of this account is likely to be untraceable.

Data Backups

What is it?
To back up your files, simply create a second copy of your important documents somewhere other than your computer's hard drive.

What risks are involved?
If you don't back up your data, you might lose it. Your files could disappear due to a virus, computer crash, accidental keystroke, theft, or external disaster.

What can I do to protect myself?

Ø      Back up critical and essential files on a daily basis and non-critical files on a weekly or monthly basis. You can back up your data to a CD, to an online backup service (for a small monthly fee), flash drive, USB key, or to a server, if you can get access to one from your Internet Service Provider or commercial vendor. Some companies offer automatic backups when you buy their programs.

Ø     Keep all your critical files in one place so you can easily create a duplicate copy.

Ø      Store your backup media (CDs, disks, backup server, etc.) in a safe, secure place away from your computer, in case of fire or theft.

Ø     Periodically test the capability to restore from the backup media. An unreadable backup is not worth much. To ensure that your backup files are reliable, simply upload the files to your computer.

Ø      Faculty/Staff: Check with your department's Technical Support Coordinator (TSC) to find out if he or she runs regular backups of departmental computers.

DNS Security Enhancement

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS servers are a critical part of the

campus network infrastructure and the Internet because they allow information

on the Internet to be available when you enter a URL in your Web browser. UC

Davis disabled one capability of the DNS servers --recursive DNS--to help improve

security.

What is recursive DNS?

One example of recursive DNS is when someone who subscribes to an ISP (e.g.

Comcast) configures their computer to use the UC Davis DNS servers rather than

their ISP DNS servers to access the Internet.

Why are my DNS server settings blank?

Most ISPs provide DNS server information automatically, so you won't see

anything in the DNS server settings even though your computer is properly

configured. Check with your ISP to be sure.

What security risks are involved in recursive DNS?

Ø  Cache poisoning: An attacker could redirect users who are trying to reach one site, say a bank site, to a malicious site without their knowledge. For more information about this type of attack.

Ø  Recursive DDoS attacks: An attacker can send streams of DNS queries to caching servers. As all of these servers answer the queries, the victim host is targeted with a massive distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS). For more information.

Email Attachment Restrictions

What are email attachment restrictions?

To help prevent the spread of viruses, the campus prevents certain attachment

types from entering the campus email system. If someone sends you an email

message with a file attached and that file is one of the restricted file types, you will

not receive the attachment. You will still receive the email message.

How will I know if attachments are removed from email messages I

send/receive?

Recipients will receive a message clearly stating that an attachment was removed,

the name of the attachment, why the attachment was removed, and options for

resending the attachment as an unrestricted file type. However, senders of

restricted file types will not receive notification that the attachment was removed.

What can I do if a file type I want to send is on the restricted list?

Consider renaming the file to an unrestricted file type. Or, use Web-based file

sharing, or removable media (e.g., a flash drive).

Does this mean that all attachments I receive will be safe?

No. Use caution when opening email attachments. Do not open attachments you

were not expecting or from senders you don't know. Attachment restrictions

reduce, but might not eliminate, the number of virus-infected attachments that

reach the campus.

Encryption Basics

What kinds of information should be encrypted?

Restricted information such as:

1.   Identity information (Social Security numbers, California Driver’s License or identification card numbers)

2.   Financial account information (checking, savings and credit card account numbers)

3.   Student record information (grades, financial aid information)

4.   Medical record information (diagnoses, treatment information, identity information included in medical records)

Why should I protect restricted information?

Several federal and state laws, and several UC and UC Davis policies, require you

to. Failing to protect restricted information can have serious consequences,

including financial penalties for you, the campus and the university. 

What is encryption software, and what does it do?

Whole-disk encryption software garbles information stored on computers so that it

cannot be understood if it is accessed without using the passphrase (or key) that

you use to un-garble (or decrypt) the information. If your computer is lost or stolen

and you have encryption activated, people who try to access information on the

computer won't be able to read it.

Firewalls

What is a firewall?

A firewall acts as a protective barrier between your computer and the Internet,

monitoring all incoming and/or outgoing traffic and allowing only the network

traffic you permit. Firewalls come in the form of software, which nestles itself

between your operating system and your network card. They also come in the

form of hardware; for many home and small office users, it is a simple router

device that sits between your computer's network jack and the wall connection.

You can customize the level of protection the firewall gives you, setting it to filter

information flow from specific domain names, addresses, or types of network

traffic.

How does a firewall work?

Hackers search the Internet in a way akin to dialing random phone numbers.

They send out pings (calls) to random computers and wait for responses. Firewalls

prevent your computer from responding to these random calls. If your computer

doesn't respond, hackers won't know it's there.

What are the risks of not having a firewall?

If your computer, like most, is automatically set to enable file-sharing or to keep 

network ports open while you are online, you could be susceptible to a variety of

attacks. If you don't have a firewall, which will monitor ports to stop unwanted

traffic from slipping through, you have to know how to manually close ports, and

disable file-sharing, in order to control risky traffic from coming in to your

computer.

What do I need to know before installing a firewall?

Ø     A firewall is not the single solution to computer problems. As with other computer security measures, malicious programs disguised as friendly ones can circumvent a firewall.

Ø     Like any add-on to your computer, a firewall can interfere with other applications on your system.

Ø      Firewalls might prevent campus vulnerability scanners from alerting you to a problem on your computer.

Ø      Depending upon which department and network you belong to, there may be restrictions on the use of personal hardware firewalls/routers.

Ø      If your computer comes with basic firewall capability, or if you are thinking of installing a firewall, you should contact your tech support person first.

     Faculty and staff should consult with their department's Technical Support Coordinator (TSC) before installing a firewall.