Campus undergoing software switch this month after previous anti-virus contract expired

By Inga Lukaviciute

All campus users are busy this month removing McAfee and Virex anti-virus software from their work and home computers because the university has signed a new anti-virus software contract with Trend Micro and Symantec, which took effect Oct. 1.

The campus software license with Network Associates, the provider of McAfee and Virex anti-virus products, expired on Sept. 30.

The transition between software providers is keeping technology employers busy. Information Technology Systems office workers and technicians for different schools have been working hard to change the software.

“ The way the old contract was written required the campus to remove all copies of Network Associates products at the end of the prior contract period,” said Darrell Martin, the interim director of Information Technology Services.

This requires the campus technical engineers to go through a remove and install process for all 2,500 campus computers, he said.

When the old contract ran out, a committee was formed to review different anti-virus software providers. They narrowed the search down to three providers and chose Trend Micro and Symantec, said Lynn Edwards, Information Technology Consultant.

In the light of budget cuts, Trend Micro and Symantec were chosen because they were the cheapest, Edwards said.

Many technicians weren’t happy with this decision because it meant a massive change for all computers, Edwards said.

Edwards and two part-time student assistants have been working on changing the software on 250 library computers. She said she hopes to install all of them by Nov. 1.

Installing something on library computers means taking them down. Because of constant use and lack of assistants, the library computers can not all be taken down at one time for installations, that is why it is taking time to complete them, Edwards said.

Edwards said she liked the new anti-virus software. “I find it better than the old one, it already found a lot of viruses,” she said.

She said that it does not seem to be high maintenance software yet; it seems to work well.

The new anti-virus software contract will provide software for campus faculty and staff computers as well as help to get separate products for faculty and staff to use at home.

The new standard for PC virus protection will be Trend Micro’s OfficeScan client—and for Macintosh stations, Symantec’s Norton Antivirus 9.0, according to the information found on Fresno State’s ITS Web site, www.csufresno.edu/ITS/.

Fresno State staff and faculty can purchase the new anti-virus products for their home-use computers at CVIP. Students also will be able to buy these products, and plans to make them available will be announced within a few weeks.

Information Systems security has been an issue for campus users, since various “holes” in Microsoft operating systems and certain software applications have been detected recently, thus making anti-virus software a necessity.

Microsoft constantly urges their customers to install a number of software patches to plug those “holes,” Martin said. The ITS department took many steps to get the word out to the campus community about the need to update and patch different Microsoft operation systems and applications.

ITS sends out e-mail notices to faculty and staff regarding any security issues as well as record messages with instruction on the campus help desk phone and post information and instructions on the ITS Web site, Martin said.

For more information go to www.csufresno.edu/ITS or call the appropriate help desk: For staff, it is 278-5000 and for students, 278-7000.