Safe Computing

Anti-Virus Protection - Symantec Endpoint Protection
What is Phishing?
Strong Passwords

Anti-Virus Protection - Symantec Endpoint Protection

Campus Use

All University laptops and desktops have Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) anti-virus software installed. SEP runs anti-virus scans and updates virus definitions on each system automatically. Users with Lawrence Tech laptops or desktops do not need to do anything to configure or manage SEP software.

If you have other questions about SEP, please contact the Lawrence Tech Computer Help Desk by phone at 248.204.2330 or by email at helpdesk@ltu.edu.

What is Phishing?

Here's a definition of Phishing from Wikipedia:

Phishing:  The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.

The e-mail may direct the user to visit a web site or ask for a reply by email where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords, credit card information, social security numbers, and bank account numbers that a legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.  Often times, a phishing attempt message is full of grammatical and spelling errors and is sent from an unknown or invalid email address.

Identify theft can be devastating to the victim and is difficult, costly, and time-consuming to fix.

You can protect yourself from online identify theft by following these practices:

• Never giving out personal information such as social security number, driver's license number, bank account information, date of birth, or any other personal information requested by an email or a pop-up message.
  
• Keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software up-to-date. 
  
• Never open attachments (.zip files, photos, or executable files) unless you're sure that the sender is trusted.
  
• When using the Internet for commerce, only do business with companies that you know or can verify by calling on the phone. They should also be able to provide you with a real street address, not just a post office box.

If in doubt, "Google" the business name. You will undoubtedly find out quickly if they are a scam. No results are also a tip-off to be careful.

• If you choose to purchase something through the Internet, make sure that the "lock" symbol appears on the lower right hand corner of your browser screen when information is being entered. This means that the information is being sent with an encryption scheme that only your computer and the recipient's computer should understand.
  
• Check your bank statements and telephone bills regularly for irregularities. Even small unexplained transactions to your account should be questioned to bank officials. Even if an identity thief only removes $0.50 from your account, be concerned. They are doing it to thousands of accounts and it is real money.

To help the Lawrence Tech community recognize a legitimate email message, please remember that messages sent from Lawrence Tech IT Services will always be signed by name.  And we will never ask you to send personal information in an email message.
In addition, now that our email service has moved to Google Apps for Education, individual email storage capacity is 7 GBs.  The likelihood of running out of email storage is extremely low.  Any email message which indicates that you are over your email storage quota is almost always a phishing attempt.

There are many web sites which can help explain phishing tactics and what you can do to protect yourself.  For more information, look at these sites:
The Federal Trade Commission, FTC Consumer Alert:

The Anti-Phishing Working Group

Here is an example of a phishing attempt received Oct. 2009:

From: SWAMI, B.N. (PROF.) <>BONUNS@mopipi.ub.bw>
Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 12:52 AM
Subject: Important Email Verification Update
To: admin@helpdesk.com

Your mailbox quota has been exceeded the storage limit which is 20GBas set by your administrator,You are currently running on 20.9GB. You may not be able to send or receive new mails until you re-validate your mailbox.

To re-activate your account please click the link below

http://rpc.formmailhosting.com/showform.php?id=5831

Thanks and we are sorry for the inconviniences

Webmail Admin

Strong Passwords

One of the most important ways to secure your data and protect your personal information is to know how to create and use strong passwords.  Using strong passwords and changing them regularly can help keep you safe from attackers who try to access your accounts by guessing or cracking your passwords.

A strong password is difficult to guess, has 8 or more characters, isn't a word in the dictionary (regardless of language), and includes numbers and special characters. 

If you need help creating a strong password, here are some suggestions:

• Pick a phrase you can easily remember. Use the first or last letter of each word and put it together for a password. For example: Lawrence Technological University: Theory and Practice since 1932 password would be: ltu:taps1
• Capitalize some of the letters: hAveAGooDDay
• Use numbers in place of vowels: secr1tP4ssw0rd
• Remove some letters from a word or misspell it intentionally: Xpearimntl
• Include special characters: what_t!me?izit

Remember to guard your identity and data by following these practices:

• Don't share your password with anyone. It's a violation of Lawrence Tech Computing policy to share your username and password information with anyone.
• Don't store passwords on your computer, have your browser remember them, or leave them written on pieces of paper around your computer.
• Use different passwords for different systems. Don't use the same password for every website and account you have. If you use the same password for all your accounts and it's compromised, then all your accounts are compromised.
• Don't create passwords using personal information like birthdays, names of children, pets, phone numbers, or addresses. Social networking sites make your personal information widely available and your password may be easy to guess.
• Make your passwords really long. The longer a password is, the harder it is to crack.
• Change your passwords regularly.
• Change your password after international travel and after using a non-secure network.

Are you using one of the ten most popular passwords?

Watch this video to find out.