Email Virus Filtering for the NDSU Campus

One of the leading IT security issues today is computer viruses. NDSU IT staff deal with viruses on a daily basis. Computers infected with viruses result in lost productivity because the infected machine must be cleaned by staff and is not usable during this process. Frequently, viruses cause loss of data such as email and important documents. In many cases, this data is stored locally and not backed up which means permanent loss. In addition, the infection of any campus computer can cause disruption of service and increased risk of infection to all campus computers.

NDSU IT staff strongly recommend that desktop computers be protected with anti-virus software. NDSU ITS makes anti-virus software available free-of-charge to all faculty, staff, and students for business and personal use. Regardless, many desktop computers remain unprotected or the virus software is not kept up-to-date and consequently the problem remains.

A primary mechanism for virus transmittal is email. Currently, NDSU's email is not filtered for viruses. However, the HECN, which provides primary email services to NDSU and other campuses, has announced a virus scanning solution for email that uses software from the same company that is provided for desktops at NDSU. The system that has been implemented scans all email to @ndsu.nodak.edu addresses for viruses. If an email is found to be infected it is rejected and the sender is notified that the mail has been rejected and why. It is important to note that there are several other email services in use on campus, which would not be affected by this change (e.g. departmental or individual mail servers). Groupwise (used by Old Main and Ceres) already has a virus scanning solution which would continue.

NDSU ITS, following the recommendation of CITPG, will be implementing the HECN virus scanning service on November 25. The implementation of this service has not affected email service on other campuses where it has been implemented and it is not expected to noticeably affect service at NDSU. While it will not guarantee the elimination of viruses (nor can any single strategy), combined with continued emphasis on user education and the proper use of desktop software, it will contribute significantly to a reduction in the number of virus infections on the NDSU campus.

If you have any questions or concerns about the implementation of this service please address your comments to your Computing and Information Technologies Planning and Goals (CITPG) Committee representative. A complete list of representative can be found at: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/cpg/about/mem8-02.htm.