Antivirus and backups

Keeping your computer, work and personal files safe and secure is a major priority. Both the College and the University operate sophisticated firewalls and network management systems but the lion's share of the work required to maintain your security must be done by you.

• You should keep your operating system and any application software packages up to date with software updates.
• You should install and maintain anti-virus software.
• Anti-virus software should be updated daily.

The University provides anti-virus software free of charge for the duration of your stay in Cambridge. More information, including links to software downloads, can be found on the University website.

A large proportion of the problems we see are due to anti-virus software that has come to the end of its update subscription period. Many students bring new laptops with one-year subscriptions and do not pay to continue the updates when it expires. If you install the software supplied by the University it will continue to update daily for the full duration of your stay.

• You should give careful thought to how you will back up your work and any other files that are important to you.
• Backups should be regular and frequent - especially important if you are working on a significant piece of work.
• UIS advice on backups.
• Simple instructions for setting up a basic backup.

If you think that you may already have a virus or other malware problem or you receive a notification from the UIS or the College IT Department that your machine is exhibiting behaviour consistent with a malware problem, follow this UIS procedure.

You can also e-mail the Student IT Assistants for advice.