Re: Anti-virus Options for Students

["King, Ronald A." <raking () NSU EDU>]

We don't require them to have an AV installed.  When we detect malicious
activity on the network, we remove their access and suggest well known free
for personal use solutions (AVG, AVIRA, AVAST, MSE) before restoring access.
The only product (so far/knock on wood) that we have had issues with has
been McAfee.  At the start of this fall semester, we had a larger group (of
students) than usual experiencing problems accessing our wireless.  Turns
out a recent update prevented their systems from authenticating.  McAfee
published a knowledgebase article at the time on how to update their product
to fix it.  We are small enough that this works for us.

 

If you have a NAC solution checking for AV products, that will have a
significant bearing on what you will suggest or dictate.  We found that not
all products or their updates were detected correctly.  For example, if I
recall the version numbers correctly, when AVG went from 2010 to 2011, our
NAC solution detected the host as being out of compliance.  It took special
registry checks to identify it correctly while we waited for the NAC vendor
to provide updated definitions.  We ended up turning off the AV detection in
NAC for that and a few other reasons.

 

 

Ronald King

Security Engineer

Norfolk State University

http://security.nsu.edu <http://security.nsu.edu/> 

 

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Yoka
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 11:17 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Anti-virus Options for Students

 

Our institution has started having the discussion of whether or not we will
allow students to use anti-virus software other than our corporate standard
(McAfee).

 

Are other schools out there allowing students to use the AV programs of
their choosing?  If so, what impact has it had on your help desk as far as
support time/issues?  If not, are you allowing students to choose from a
limited, pre-selected set of AV choices or forcing all of them to use one
corporate standard AV program, enforced by a NAC solution?


 

Thanks,

-- 

Robert J. Yoka, CISSP
Information Security Administrator
Information Technology
York College of Pennsylvania
441 Country Club Road
York, PA 17403

Email: ryoka () ycp edu
Voice: 717-815-1784

Cell: 717-577-0737

 

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