Penn State Intercom......January 24, 2002
Agreement provides free virus detection
software for students, faculty, staff
By Heather Herzog
Computer and Information
Systems 
A contract recently signed between Penn State and Symantec will make Norton AntiVirus software available at no cost to students, faculty and staff throughout the University.
According to University computer experts, concern about the damage viruses can inflict is growing at Penn State, as increasingly more students acquire and use computers for a range of activities including chatting with friends, submitting papers and conducting research. New viruses appear at the rate of about three to four each month, experts say, so University community members shouldn't rely on anti-virus software that isn't updated on a regular basis. Moreover, the onslaught of attachment-based viruses and other hostile code has been extremely costly for institutions and businesses. For example, "Melissa" extracted a price tag of about $80 million, and damages inflicted by the highly publicized "Love Bug" were in the billions.
Issues such as these prompted the University to search for a virus detection system that would be both cost-effective and accessible for the many computer users in the Penn State community, according to Kevin Morooney, senior director of the Center for Academic Computing, one of six units that comprise the Office of Computer and Information Systems.
"Symantec is a leading anti-virus software developer. We believe its Norton AntiVirus software package will provide effective coverage for all the individuals at Penn State who install it," Morooney added. "We encourage everyone to use this software."
Students at University Park will be able to obtain the new free anti-virus software from offices located at 6 Willard and 214 Computer Building. Students at other campus locations can obtain the software from the computer center in their specific areas. The software distribution, which began officially on Jan. 21, is expected to continue throughout this year.
In addition to the student distribution, a free, two-CD Norton AntiVirus set will be sent to all University department budget administrators. Each department must then complete a Microcomputer Order Center form to obtain the legal license for use of the software. This order form may also be used to purchase additional copies of the CDs at the cost of $2 per set. The department CDs will include individual software, plus tools to be installed on departmental servers to allow the centralized administration of configurations and updates. Department licenses are expected to cover both home and work systems for faculty and staff at Penn State.
To learn more about the Norton AntiVirus software distribution program, see http://cac.psu.edu/infotech/. The anti-virus software can be downloaded from the Microcomputer Order Center at http://moc.cac.psu.edu.
Heather Herzog can be reached at heh4@psu.edu.