IST changes to Microsoft’s virus protection program
New software provides spyware and virus defense
September 29, 2011
Cleveland State University is changing its virus protection software from McAfee to Microsoft Forefront. The change will affect all Windows-based university computers located throughout the campus. The new software provides both spyware and virus protection.
Macintosh based computers will continue to use McAfee virus protection software.
According to William Wilson, chief information officer for IST, the leading cause for the switch was to meet budget restraints.
“The product is made available to universities for free,” Wilson said. “We had spent annually in the neighborhood of $20,000 a year on McAfee. This was one way for us to save some dollars and still add virus protection for the campus.”
Wilson says Microsoft Forefront performs better than McAfee.
“The number of viruses that we’re seeing on campus is declining,” he said. “It can take anywhere from 14 to 24 hours to clean a computer once it gets infected, and there is no guarantee that the machine will be completely free of viruses after the exercise has been completed.”
“We’ve started rolling out the new virus software toward the end of summer, and we were able to do that remotely,” Wilson said.
The virus protection transition will be completed soon.
According to Wilson, the university is concerned with limiting what computer users can do at computer stations.
“We’re trying to get a little bit tighter control on the software and the things that people do with software on their desktops,” Wilson said. “We’re trying to limit people from being able to download their favorite screen saver, which typically carries a virus with it.”
Article source: http://www.csuohio.edu/class/com/clevelandstater/Copy/130307.html
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