In the next few weeks, USM will be giving students, faculty and staff free copies of Norton antivirus for PC and Mac computers, free of charge. No increase in student fees or tuition is expected because of this offer.
Computer viruses are much more likely to spread when many computers are linked together, as they are at USM. According to Mert Nickerson, USM’s director of University Computing Technologies, a single virus can consume days of work time for multiple members of his staff. With each attack, they not only have to remove that virus, but also make sure it doesn’t spread, repair any damage and make sure that what was exploited is not exploited again.
USM already installs McAfee VirusScan on all University-owned computers. However, as Andy Smith-Petersen, the system administrator in charge of the new program, points out, combating viruses is most effective if everyone is protected. The University of Maine System recognized this and came together to make sure that all seven campuses are covered. By pooling their resources and collectively bidding for licenses, the University System received a lower price on the software. The University System chose Symantec for its virus protection needs.
If you live in the residence halls of USM, or are faculty or staff with a new computer, you may know this already. Since the beginning of the semester, Symantec Antivirus for Windows machines and Norton Antivirus for Macintosh (both are owned by Symantec) have been available for download from the ResNet site and computers around campus have been switched over on a case-by-case basis. Within two weeks the University hopes to make the programs downloadable for the rest of the campus and aims to have all University computers covered by the end of June.
According to the license agreement signed by the UMaine System, all university computers will be given access to Symantec software. Additionally, each student, staff or faculty member is allowed to install the software on one personal computer. When the person leaves the university, however, the software should be removed. Once the University has ironed out a verification system, the software will be available for download from the University website, complete with an installation program that will check for conflicting software.