Practise safe computing—and win

Every day UVic's computing services department detects and deflects up to 200 malicious e-mail and network attacks.

"Ninety per cent of the e-mail that comes to UVic's e-mail servers is unsolicited," says Darin Lee, computing user services technical analyst. "This includes 3,000 virus- infected e-mails per day and a very significant proportion of spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail."

To raise awareness of workstation security and the launch of a computer security "best practices" website, computing and systems services is sponsoring a campus-wide iPod Mini giveaway contest. The contest is called Secure Your Tunes: Practice Safe Computing and Win an iPod Mini!
To be eligible, students, faculty and staff can log on to helpdesk.uvic.ca, read the best practices information, and correctly answer five questions. The contest draw date is Feb. 11.

According to Lee, universities around the world are trying alternate ways to focus attention on the importance and relative ease of keeping computers safe. He suggests that all computer users keep up with software patches and update anti-virus software daily.

"It reduces the total cost of ownership of a machine," he says. "If your security practices are good, it lowers the chance of having to pay people to service your computer and clean off viruses."
Lee notes that if no security precautions are taken and a virus attacks a computer, the owner could lose any work stored on the hard drive. "A virus can wipe your computer clean."