Security & Viruses

Computing securely and safely is an important issue to building robust and confident networks of information. This page contains information about how you can clean and secure your computer from malicious threats and be a safe contributing member of the Rice network.

October = NCSAM 

October was National CyberSecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM).  Rice's theme was  "2009 - The Year of the Phish." To spread the word, fliers were sent to all departments, bookmarks were distributed in college commons and the student center, and life-size posters displayed in the colleges along with  Thresher ads portraying victims and villains in phishing scams.  (Special thanks to students in the Theatre 102 and 301 classes for posing as victims, villains, and bystanders.)

Also, a series of five lunch speakers addressed a variety of cybersecurity topics. Below are some of the online resources that were shared with the audience at these events:

Online Resources from NCSAM Speakers

FTC: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft (video)

U.S. Postal Inspection Service: Fraud-Prevention Videos (videos)

WIRED: Inside a Credit Card Fraud Factory (video)

Houston Police: Identity Theft  (.pdf brochure)

Research Channel: Computer Security Awareness Video Contest Winners  included:

• 10 Most Common Passwords
• 20/40 News Story
• Internet Relationships

Bluefish TV: Identity Preview only  (this video on teen identity risks is copyrighted and for sale)

Consumer Action: Credit Card Fraud  (Powerpoint file)

 Rice IT Security Office: Identity Watch Five D-I-Y Steps  (.pdf file)

NCSAM  2009 Speaker Series

• September 28 - Facebook: Use and Risks for Teens 
• October 7 - Security vs. Privacy at Home
• October 13 - Password Management for All Your Accounts
• October 22 - Identity Theft: Prevention and Recovery
• October 30 - Credit Information Theft: Prevention, Monitoring, and Recovery

Antivirus

• Virus Protection - Download Rice-licensed antivirus software.
• Trend Micro Officescan is available only for Rice-owned Windows computers. 
• PC-Cillin is available for personally-owned computers of Rice employees and students. 

Security

• Rice University Security Policy PDF (154KB)
• Tips for Securing Your Data - Information on ways to protect your data.
• Identity Theft Protection - Easy tips to avoid theft of personal information.
• Phishing - answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Phishing Updates  - September 2009 PDF (279KB)
• Choosing Good Passwords - An easy guide to something that can provide you a lot of protection.
• Email with SSL - Information about SSL security for your Rice Email.
• Connect from off-campus or unsecured wireless networks using VPN

Clean Access

• Rice's network security program, Clean Access, helps minimize virus contamination and quarantines computers that get infected. Clean Access requires anti-virus software to be installed and up to date. See antivirus links (above) for details.