A contract recently signed between Penn State and Symantec will make Norton AntiVirus software available at no cost to students, faculty, and staff throughout the University.
According to University computer experts, concern about the damage viruses can inflict is growing at Penn State, as increasingly more students acquire and use computers for a range of activities including chatting with friends, submitting papers, and conducting research. New viruses appear at the rate of about three to four each month, experts say, so University community members shouldn't rely on anti-virus software that isn't updated on a regular basis. Moreover, the onslaught of attachment-based viruses and other hostile code has been extremely costly for institutions and businesses; for example, "Melissa" extracted a price tag of about 80 million, and damages inflicted by the highly publicized "Love Bug" were in the billions.
Issues such as these prompted the University to search for a virus detection system that would be both cost-effective and accessible for the many computer users in the Penn State community, commented Kevin Morooney, senior director of the Center for Academic Computing (one of six units that comprise the Office of Computer and Information Systems).
"Symantec is a leading anti-virus software developer. We believe its Norton AntiVirus software package will provide effective coverage for all the individuals at Penn State who install it," Morooney added. "We encourage everyone to use this software."
Students at University Park will be able to obtain the new free anti-virus software from offices located at 6 Willard and 215 Computer Building. Students at other campus locations can obtain the software from the computer center in their specific areas. The software distribution, which began officially on January 21, is expected to continue throughout this year.
In addition to the student distribution, each Administrative Area (via the Administrative Officer) will receive a two-CD set of AntiVirus Corporate Edition v 7.6 which contains Mac, DOS, Win 3.1 and higher versions; the set also includes the Windows 2000 server version. Each Penn State departmental license may be loaded on ONE registered departmental machine. That same copy can be used on a second home or portable machine. Departments must order a free license before media can legally be installed.
Licenses and media can be ordered from the Microcomputer Order Center (MOC) either online at http://moc.cac.psu.edu using a Penn State Purchasing Card or through IBIS using an IDCC.
The anti-virus software is also available for download from the https://downloadsym.cac.psu.edu Web site.