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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1995)
The Clackamas Print Wednesday, November 29,1995 OpMon/Eegture continued from page 2 Avoiding the threat Questioning the government of computer viruses Brendon Neal Section Editor Computer viruses can de stroy months of student work and cost thousands of tax-payer dollars in software and hard ware. According to “Computer Viruses: An Introduction,” a handout being given out by the Computer Lab to people with a virus on their home computers, there are a couple of miscon ceptions about viruses. A virus can’t move from one type of computer to another, such as from an IBM-compatible to a Macintosh computer. Viruses don’t generate themselves they/are pro grams made by a • person. However, they appear to come out of nowhere because they aren’t inten tionally copied to a disk. The other wrong belief is that all viruses are harmful. Sometimes, al though rarely, they just cause minor damage as a side effect of some other larger activity. Viruses occur in open sys tems such as the ones at the col lege. Home users can also get viruses, especially if they use open systems as well. There are, however, ways to lessen the chances of “catching” a virus and ways of minimiz ing damage if you do get one. No one anti-virus program can find all viruses because they vary so greatly in design that there is no exact pattern that can be detected. However, many are variations of standard ones. Be cause thousands of new viruses come out every month, com puter owners need to keep their anti-virus programs updated. Usually, companies or design ers will have bulletin boards or phone numbers where updates can be downloaded or ordered for free or for a small fee. Viruses are usually caught from pirated or non-copyrighted materials. A way to avoid vi ruses is to not download pro grams from bulletin boards. Ei ther intentionally or not, cus tomers of these boards can up load infected programs to the board. With the thousands of programs on the boards, it is nearly impossible for the people running them to keep track of all programs and Check them for viruses. Often programs seem to accomplish what they are sup posed to, and even well-known programs can be infected by the person that puts the program on the Bulletin Boards. Then when you put the program on your computer, your computer receives the virus along with the main program. Instead of get ting them from boards, get soft ware from the original author whenever possible. This way you can verify to some degree that the program doesn’t have a virus and can know who put the virus on if there is one. M a k i n g backups of your hard drive and diskettes is very impor tant. Getting a tape drive for your computer allows you to back-up your drive whenever you wish with out having to store dozens of diskettes. If you get a virus that damages all or part of your hard drive you can use the backups to retrieve the information that was on it as of the last backup. How often you should backup your computer depends upon how often you change/use your computer. Once a month is con sidered a good idea. This also protects against hardware fail ures that do occur. Avoid using boot disks un less you have no hard drive. The common way viruses get put on a computer is from bootup disks. Keep your disks write-pro tected (tab on back of disk in the upright position) except when you are copying information onto the disk. This way viruses can’t be spread onto your disk from other disks or hard drives. Another way to find out if your computer has a virus is to look for “strange behavior.” If any of the following occurs, you should get your computer checked: take longer than nor mal to load programs, showing unusual error messages, memory size increasing or de creasing, disk lights staying on longer than they used to and files that disappear for no rea son. Any of these can be signs of viruses. Pwjfiei 2112 Be one of A© firsi siwdenis we will give a free calling card £o. ‘Separate Billing ‘Excellent Rates/ No deposit ‘No Monthly Fee ‘No Surcharge ‘Referral Bonuses Sponsored by the P- Stop by the Student Government office, or call (503jg5^44W-~ ~ — Has the confusion in the Capitol clouded the minds of the people representing us, represent ing our country? Our Federal government only shut down for a short period of time, but can we be sure that it won’t happen again? The shut down happened because the gov ernment fiscal year had ended and Congress hadn’t yet approved spending plans for next year. In the past, Congress has passed a continuing resolution to pay the bills for a few weeks until the real budget had been worked out. But Congress and Clinton couldn’t agree on even that because each saw the vote as a preview of the battle over the seven-year plan. Why can’t they make up their minds? We have voted people into position to represent us in de cisions concerning our country, but Congress has been over whelmed with making more money and has forgotten what they are there for in the first place. The threat that our country can be shut down because Con gress can’t quit arguing, shows us that they have either taken upon themselves too many appropria tions bills that need to be passed, or they don’t have the most im portant thing on their minds - our country. Mail-in ballots are due Dec. 1, for the primary elections to fill Packwood’s seat. We must take it upon ourselves to keep our Congress in check. We should contact them and let them know what we think. Let’s make it loud and clear what we want. Drafting an Electronic Information Resource Policy The following document is the college’s electronic informa the college's Electronic Informa tion resources tion Resource Policy draft as of Authorized Accounts: Username/ password pairs or similar codes Nov. 13 1995. This isn’t the final draft. The or code devices such as copy cards document has been going through that allow a person access to an a review process since April 1995. EIR. ASG, faculty, Classified ACCEPTABLE USAGE: Associaton, Instructional Coun In order to make possible the wid cil, Information Resource Com est use of these important tech mittee and the President’s Coun nologies a set of shared under cil are some of the groups that standings and rules is necessary. have been invited to participate In general the same ethical con duct that applies to the use of all in the review, of the plan. “This is an Electronic Infor college facilities applies to the use mation Resource Policy, not a of electronic media. Users should policy to restrict the use of E-mail. show respect for college property, E-mail is only one of many elec consideration of others, responsi tronic information resources on bility for actions, and authorized campus” explained Paul Rothi, and efficient use of college re- . sources, In addition, qser$.of EJRs chief information officer. “These groups‘are being in should have a basic understand vited to review this draft. The goal ing of the role of the law as re is to reach consensus that these gards copyright and other legal is- are rules we as a college commu nity agree to live by,” Rothi said. 44------------------------- When consensus is reached, and a final draft developed, it will be sent to the Board of Education for formal adoption. TITLE: DRAFT ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCE POLICY Policy ~ (Draft #5, 11/ 13/95) PURPOSE: This policy state ment establishes measures for the protection, access, responsibility and acceptable use of Clackamas Community College’s electronic information resources. The elec tronic information resources at CCC are to be used in a manner that supports the educational mis sion of the college. CCC by mis sion and policy encourages learn ing, research, creativity, teaching, and the free exchange of ideas in a climate of openness and shar ing. Electronic information tech nologies are an important set of tools in this effort. DEFINITIONS: Electronic Information Resources (EIRs): all electronic hardware, software and associated data that support the following: adminis- . trative information systems, desk top computing, library automa tion, multi-media, data, video and 'voice networks, electronic mail • (Email), Internet access, modems, ■scanners, telephone systems, ¡ voice mail, copy machines, fax ; machines, electronic publications ‘ including video, or -afty similar electronic based fujictjo.niliity* User: any person authdnzeato use This is an Electronic Information Resource Policy, not a policy to restrict the use of E-mail sues. College EIRs must always be used in compliance with all interna tional, federal, state, and local laws. EIRs are to be used through authorized accounts. Users must not share their authorized ac counts with others in a manner that jeopardizes the security or integrity of the EIR. Users must not use college EIRs to make un authorized entry to other EIRs inside or outside of the college. Users must respect the privacy of others by not inspecting, broad casting, or modifying EIRs as signed to individuals without per mission. CCC EIRs must be used for college related purposes and activities as defined by custom, contract and board policy, al though occasional personal use is permitted. For example, an em ployee may do homework on per sonal time. The college cannot ■guarantee that messages or files ?are private Or secure. ■Mass electronic mailings and paudix messages to the entire cam- ‘'ptiS'ffifiKt'haveDESri' SpyrSV’al. System management techniques should be used by all levels of col lege stall to ensure that: a) the integrity of information is pre served through access controls and data custodianship assign ments; b) system capabilities can be reestablished within an appro priate time frame upon loss or damage by accident, malfunction, breach of security, or natural di saster; and c) actual or attempted breaches of security can be de tected promptly. Network and sys tem utilization activity will be monitored for purposes of main taining system performance and security. All data should be treated as confidential unless designated or authorized for public release. Data will generally be shared among those users whose work can be done more effectively by knowledge of such information unless prohibited. Access to data is not approval for its use outside an individual’s official college re sponsibility. No one shall delib erately attempt to degrade the per formance of any EIR or block ac cess to others. No one shall know ingly introduce invasive computer software such as viruses on me dia that is brought to the college from outside of the college. All data and software housed on col lege EIRs must be owned by or licensed to the college, comply with contract agreements between CCC and its employee associa tions, and comply with federal and international copyright law. Users shall be responsible for messages they transmit through the college s EIRs and shall obey the acceptable use policies of the Internet and any rules of discus sion forums in which they partici pate. Fraudulent, harassing or obscene messages and/or materi als as defined by contemporary court decisions are not to be sent or stored. Information that is pub lished electronically using World Wide Web, Kiosks, Bulletin Board Systems, or similar elec tronic applications for broad gen eral consumption outside of the college shall be subject to the same standards as conventional publications with respect to the representation of the college. Failure to abide by this policy may result in temporary or per manent denial of access to CCC’s EIRs. Punitive or legal action may also be taken by the appropriate administrative or judicial body in accordance with college policies and bargained agreements
