Computer viruses are a very real threat to school, corporate and home computer users. Bath County Schools has taken a number of steps to ensure that our computers and network are safe, though we need the cooperation of all division computer users to keep our equipment working properly. All school computers have had Symantec Antivirus Client software installed on them, and they receive updates each day through our network. Still, our computers are at risk. New viruses come out each day, and certain viruses target particular types of machines.

The old advice for email attachments was to only open attachments that are of a file type you would expect (.doc for Word files, .pub for Publisher files, .jpg for photos, etc.) and from folks that you trust. While this advice may keep you from SOME trouble, most of the newer viruses would get past this level of scrutiny. Most viruses are now disguised to come to AND "from" email addresses that are in the same address book: When a computer is infected with a virus, the virus looks at the user's contact list, and sends out infected emails to all the contacts-just as before. The twist more recently is the emails that are being sent out are using random email addresses in the "From" heading that are from that same contact list! The result is that you are more likely to recognize the "sender" of the infected email-even though that person's computer may not have even been on, much less involved with illicit activity. So, the current advice is

DON'T TRUST ANYONE WHO SENDS YOU AN ATTACHMENT.

The ONLY reliable measure is to SCAN attachments before opening them. In fact, failure to scan email attachments places school division resources at unnecessary risk. Continued irresponsible use of school division computer technology will result in loss of computer privileges.

Computer viruses cost!-They cost you in lost productivity and frustration when your computer malfunctions; They cost the taxpayers of Bath County valuable staff time that could have been spent on new technology and services.

Keep Your Computer Safe