“What the @#$%?!”

An article by Don Quixote

“What the @#$%?!”
Connecting your computer to the USF network
By Bill Soulliere

So you had a long relaxing summer; filled with late nights, movies, and downloading a hundred cool new songs with the latest Kaaza or Aries software. Now you’re all set to return to school, jump on a T1 line and continue right where you left off. Your dad and mom carried in all your junk that you tote to school each year and the first thing out of the box is your machine. You plug it in, fire up your IM and …. nada, zilch, nothing. This can’t be right. So you double click on your Internet Explorer and are greeted with a log in screen for something called Perfigo. Perfi-what? Perfigo.

“Hey, aren’t they the guys who make fancy Italian bread? What are they doing controlling my computer?”

Welcome to the 2004-2005 school year.

As students sit puzzled in front of computer screens scattered through out the dorms, one question continually arises, “What the @#$%?!” So before the peasants start to revolt and ask for Marie Sordelet’s head on a platter, we need to head this off at the pass.

What Perfigo is not:

A) Our subtle way of spying at the files on your computer (we can do that already)
B) Fancy Italian bread
C) Something we require just to make your life miserable (that’s a pleasant by product)
D) An attempt to increase your technology fee so that Campus Computing can go on a cruse this winter

So if Campus Computing isn’t playing “Big Brother” (that’s a reference to a book called 1984, read it), and it’s not an edible product, then what is Perfigo?

Perfigo is a security program used to help combat virus outbreaks on our campus network.

As children, our mother’s used to give us these pieces of advice, “Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been,” and “Wash your hands before dinner,” and my personal favorite, “Don’t get into an accident without clean underwear on.” In essence, Perfigo attempts to bring all those childhood truths to our technical age.

When you plug into an unsecured network, you are exposing your computer to some serious threats. Who knows where your roommate’s computer has been? Are they the kind of user who clicks on every pop-up window, installs every program that she’s offered, and has even made the mistake of installing the weather bug? Their computer might be crawling with viruses and worms that are just itching for some new files to chew through. They might safe, but do you trust the guy across the hall, or what about the next dorm over?

Unless you’re an uber-user (and even then that’s not guarantee), there’s a very good chance that your computer has something and it’s looking to spread. Once it start’s, it’s a pain to try and stop it; in a matter of hours it can bring the entire network to a halt.

As a Campus Computing staff we can’t let this happen. So what are our options? We can just close off the network and make everyone use dial up (and there was much rejoicing on the Campus Computing staff). We could just open the network to everyone and their brother and do whatever they want… that is until it crashes and destroys all your computers. Or perhaps we can find a middle ground. Some place where you have the access you need to use the network in a responsible way, and at the same time protect the integrity and security of the network.

Enter Perfigo.

Perfigo with it’s SmartEnforcer is our new gateway to the University of Saint Francis’ network. It’s job is to make sure that your system meets a set of minimum standards before we let you out on the open range to graze.

It first checks to make sure that your operating system is up to date. Since a majority of computers use some form of Windows operating system (OS) and many of those have proven to have had security flaws (some large enough to drive a truck through), we want to make sure that as many of your holes are filled to help reduce the opportunity for malicious software to effect your computer and then in turn effect the network.

Next Perifgo’s SmartEnforce checks to make sure that you have some sort of virus protection software installed. This is where things get sort of tricky. Many systems come with some form of virus protection already installed, so people think they are safe. The problem with that is many are expired and are often out of date, which makes them pretty useless. The best solution we could come up to this problem was to provide you with our virus protection of choice, TrendMicro.

Now, our plan isn’t to make you feel like you just wasted $80.00 on your own virus software (as a side note, this can always be used when you are off campus, or on another computer), and then turn around and charge you for another one, what we are trying for is some sort of “standard”. In order to do that, we have to make sure that everyone is on the same page and is using the same software. This way we can be confident that your computer is safe and our network is safe.

As you can see the repeated theme has been safety, both for your own personal computer and for the campus wide network. While it’s impossible to have a totally secured computer and still remain connected to the entire outside world, this is the best option we have to strike that balance between safety and security. Understand that this process will not be without its minor problems. Some systems coming in have been infected with upwards of over 500 viruses, and hundreds of spy ware programs. These little guys resist being removed and we’re doing what we can to give you the tools to root them out. Cleaning up these exceptional cases will take time, but together with your patience and our know how we can get there in short order.

Here’s to safe computing.