Network Security
There are a wide array of threats to your accounts and your computer, and by extension, everyone you communicate with. ITS has an array of systems and services to help protect you. But even with these protective services, it is still important for you to follow good security practices. Spammers and scammers are always coming up with new techniques, so even if your computer is safe today, if not keep updated, it probably won’t be secure in a few months.
Spam
Spam is unsolicited, (usually) commercial bulk email. Pomona College provides the Postini service to protect you from as many of these as possible. Customizing your Postini account can reduce the amount of garbage emails which may slip through its existing protection.
Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses
These are small programs that are able to reproduce and spread on their own (the different names refer to the specific ways they spread).
Pomona College provides McAfee Anti Virus, so as long as your computer remains updated, you should be protected from most virii, worms or trojan horses.
Postini
Postini is the e-mail filter used by Pomona. It blocks suspicious messages from reaching your inbox, while still allowing you to access the messages if you must.
Postini automatically runs on your e-mail account from the moment the account is created. Postini will send you an e-mail each morning listing emails it blocked the previous day. (If nothing was blocked, you won’t get this e-mail.)
You can click on the subject line to view the message, or click deliver to send incorrectly blocked messages to your inbox.
Changing Postini settings
You can get to your Postini account by pointing your web browser at http://spam.pomona.edu.
You should have already received an e-mail from Postini with your login information; use that to access your Message Center. Near the top of the page, there’s a link that says “Junk Email Settings.” This will take you to a page that lets you adjust the strength of your protection and white- or blacklist certain users.
McAfee AntiVirus
Pomona provides McAfee Anti-Virus free of charge to its students, staff and faculty. This program and programs like it will warn you if a suspicious file attempts to gain entry to your system, and let you decide what to do about it. Faculty and staff should have McAfee already loaded on their computers. You can get further instructions on the AntiVirus download page
Phishing
“Phishing” is the practice of sending emails which appear to come from a bank or PayPal or eBay. They usually share a common feature: they will ask you to click on on a link which takes you to a legitimate-looking web page where you will be asked to log in or offer some other personal information. If you type in your login information, you’ve taken the bait.
If you receive email from any kind of financial or shopping website ordering you to click a login link, be very suspicious.. Reputable organizations almost never send email like this.
If you get an urgent email asking you to log in to an important account, you should contact Customer Service at the organization who appears to have sent you the email. They’ll let you know if there’s a problem.
Chain Letters, Weird Offers and Other Irritations
Will Bill Gates really give you $10,000 dollars if you forward an email 10 times? Will you really get a huge percentage of a Nigerian fortune for a few minutes of your time? Is this stock really about to explode in value? (hint: No )
You should never forward this kind of email, especially if it contains any kind of link or website address.
A good place to check up on the latest email opportunity your family has forwarded to you is Snopes (http://www.snopes.com). Be gentle with your family though. They mean well.
