This lab is about Information Security, and the lab activity consists of installing anti-virus software and personal firewall software. Learning to protect your computer can save you from wasting time, energy, and money, so pay close attention.
Directions:
Go to www.security.gatech.edu. Follow the link called "OIT Information Security" and then the link "Protection". Read the following sections: "Choosing a Secure Password", "PGP", "Personal Firewalls", "Antivirus", "Secure Services", and "Email Bombing". The basics of this material are fair game to appear as questions on quizzes or exams.
Go to the software download website. This is where you can find free software from OIT. Enter your operating system and select "student" under the "affiliation" menu.
This will take you to a new page where you will be able to download antivirus and firewall software. If you already have this type of software installed, you do not have to download more from this site. Instead of downloading software from this site, go to the website for your product and download any updates that are available unless your software does this automatically.
If you use Windows, download and install the antivirus software. If you are not sure how to configure your firewall settings, there is help available both in the program's "Help" utility and on the company's website. NOTE: Some users have reported difficulties in configuring Proventia Desktop 8, so if you encounter these problems please give feedback to the Spring 2008 Lab 1 Questions page.
If you use a Macintosh operating system, download the Virex antivirus program from this website. There is currently no firewall available from OIT for Mac users. However, the Mac OS X includes a firewall. To activate it, go to Sytem Preferences -> Sharing -> Firewall.
After installing this software, scan your system for viruses. If your system has a virus, use the Internet or any information inside the scanner software (McAfee has a "Virus List" button) to make a profile of the virus. The write-up should include the symptoms of this virus, how it spreads, and how you think you might have gotten it. It should be no less than 3 sentences and no more than 5 sentences.Note: Your writeup should not be an attachment. It should be in the main body of the email. If you attach any files, they will not be graded.
If your system does not have a virus, then go to this web site and give a 3-5 sentence writeup about one of the top 10 viruses on the list. Make sure to include the symptoms of the virus and how it spreads.
Add to your write-up a one or two sentence description of the purpose of a firewall. You can find this information on the OIT webpage or on the Internet.
Send this writeup to your TA via the email account you set up in Part 1 of this lab. For the subject put you should put InfoSec Report, your prism ID, your name
Portions of this lab are taken from the CS4235 website. Thanks to
Bryan Kennedy, Mike Nelson-Palmer and Abhishek Singh for their help in creating this lab.