IT Help Desk
Kansas State University
214 Hale Library
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7722
helpdesk@k-state.edu

Security Recommendations

A vulnerable machine can be attacked and infected in a few seconds. It is your responsibility to protect your computer and your data. This helps protect the university’s network and resources, and other K-Staters.

For security and support reasons, Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and older, and Mac OS X 10.2 and older systems are not allowed to connect to K-State’s network.

K-State residence halls have special security requirements for connecting to the network. See the ResNet web site for more information.

To safely connect to K-State's network:

1. Install the university's licensed antivirus software (free for student use) from antivirus.k-state.edu. A K-State eID and password are required to sign in and download.
2. Set antivirus software to update DAILY.
3. Set Windows Update (or Mac Update) to install automatically.
4. Set a log-in password for all accounts and especially the "administrator" account (Windows XP systems) or your Mac OS X account.
5. If you will be in a residence hall, follow the additional security requirements on the ResNet Network Registration page.

These precautions are needed because K-State actively scans its network to identify computers that are unpatched, vulnerable, or infected with a computer worm or virus. If your computer is compromised, it will be blocked from accessing the network until it has been repaired and/or patched. Once infected, often the only repair procedure available is to reformat the computer's hard drive and re-install everything. See K-State's Security for Information, Computing and Network Resources policy.

K-State residence halls have special security requirements for connecting to the network. See housing.k-state.edu/resnet.