I know my student's laptop is covered by a
warranty, so if a virus attacked it, would his computer be covered?
Yes, the computer would continue to be covered,
this does not affect any warranty.
How does this affect my own
computer at home?
Your computer at home should
have anti-virus software installed and maintained to protect against future virus out breaks.
I was under the impression that
wireless was secure and safe?
Wireless is secure and safe at SRS and has played
no role in any virus attacks to date.
How does a
virus get into our "secure" network?
No network is 100% secure ever
unless it is not connected to the Internet AND is kept in a locked and secured
room. Something we cannot do at SRS if we are to continue to use the
Internet for research and collaboration such as this.
How difficult is it for someone
to get in to SRSNET?
It is very difficult to get into SRSNET (This is
the term used to describe the network at Sage Ridge School). No attack
to our systems via the Internet has yet been successful. There have been five
attacks by viruses to our systems this year four of which were abated.
Someone I know
told me that with wireless, anyone with a network card could just sit outside
the school and hack into the system. Is this even a remote possibility?
Anyone with the right tools
stands a chance to hack into any network whether it is wireless, hard wired,
connected to the Internet or not. If a student who no longer attends SRS were
to take their laptop with the wireless card which was configured for our
network (this is probably the most ideal situation for an intruder) and parked
in our parking lot and tried to connect to our network they would still have
to overcome the following obstacles:
1. They would have to know our security access code which is encoded into
each laptop system and changed periodically.
2. They would have to overcome current Microsoft Windows NT domain security
by having a username and password.
I work from home with my
computer, I cannot afford to have it be disabled by a virus. I can't
just adopt the standpoint of "don't open anything with an
attachment", because that's how my student's teachers send their weekly
homework lists.
Very good concerns to have. I would suggest you
implement an anti-virus program immediately. I would not adopt a
"don't open anything with an attachment" policy either. Simply
understand as much as you can about what you are opening prior to opening it. All MS
Word documents can be scanned automatically prior to your opening, in fact
they are scanned when you receive them by Norton Anti-Virus. In some kinds
of "Worm" email attachments the file must be named
anythinghere.vbs the VBS extension must be present for it to work. It is a
kind of program that starts when you open the attachment. It is programming
code and 99% of the time is something a typical user does not need. Not opening
any files with the .vbs extension is a good stance to take.
