Computer Security for Employees

All staff computers setup by the IT department are configured with what IT considers the best security settings for our work environment. While some employees may wish to change these settings, the IT department encourages staff members to keep the default settings to ensure up-to-date computer security.

The default settings on each staff computer include automatic operating system updates, automatic antivirus updates, and automatic antivirus scans. All of these work behind the scenes of your computer to keep you safe. Also, each computer has a personal firewall enabled in addition to the campus-wide firewall protecting our network.

If you would like to check your computer security settings to make sure you are well protected, reference the Q&A below.

Q&A

Computer Security For Employees

How do I know if Windows Update is enabled?

You can check the status of your Windows Update settings by opening up the Windows Security Center.

You can reach the Windows Security Center by either clicking on the shield icon in your system tray or by opening the Start Menu, opening “Settings”, selecting “Control Panel”, and then selecting Security Center.

Once open you should see a screen like the following:

If your firewall, antivirus, or Windows updates have any problems there will be a red light instead of a green light. Should you wish to change any of the settings for the Windows Firewall or Automatic Updates you can select the appropriate link at the bottom of the Security Center Window.
How do I know if my Antivirus is up to date?

You can check to see if your antivirus program has been updated by right-clicking on the Sophos Antivirus icon in your system tray and going to “Open Sophos Antivirus.”

You should see this window that will show you the last time your antivirus was updated.

If for some reason your antivirus definitions are not up to date, right-click on the Sophos Antivirus system tray icon and click on “Update Now” to manually run the updating process.

Please contact the IT Helpdesk if you have to manually run the update so we can ensure your computer is automatically updated in the future.