- On This Page
- Stopping Viruses Before They Reach You
- What UW Email Gets Scanned
- What to Do If You Get a Warning
Stopping Viruses Before They Reach You
Much of the email coming and going from the UW is scanned by UW Information Technology for viruses with the aim of stopping common viruses from getting onto UW computers. However, email scanning only can find known viruses. New viruses are being created all the time that may not be detected by the scanners. Also, viruses can get into your computer by other routes, such as through shared software or through networks you are connected to. Therefore, the email scanning service is only one of the UW’s antivirus defenses.
You need to do your part by taking steps to protect your computer from viruses.
The Sophos anti-virus software is available on the Sophos Anti-Virus page to all current faculty, staff, and students at no charge.
Once you have installed your virus protection software, run it regularly to check your files and update the software and the virus description files frequently. You can follow the instructions that come with it to configure the software to automatically do the scanning and updating on a schedule of your choosing.
What UW Email Gets Scanned
Messages scanned are those to or via “@u.washington.edu”, “uw.edu” or “@washington.edu,” addresses. Departmental email which isn’t forwarded via one of those domains is not scanned by UW Information Technology. Scanning inbound email (email from off campus) for viruses began in Fall of 2001.
Email scanning also includes email sent from within the UW to outside destinations through the UW Information Technology managed SMTP email servers. Scanning outbound email helps to identify people in the UW community who are using infected computers so they can be notified.
What to Do If You Get a Warning
If a virus is detected in an email:
- Infected email messages are discarded, and no notification is sent to the sender or the recipient.
- Certain types of attachments to messages are automatically removed because they are frequently used as a way to deliver malicious software (malware) to computers.
If a virus still passes through UW systems, and you receive a warning that an infected message came from your computer, you should immediately take steps to “clean out” the virus from your computer: