WVU A-Z Index · Campus Map · Campus Directory · Contact OIT · WVU Home

Office of Information Technology

• Help Desk
• News & Announcements
• Support
• Documentation & Tutorials
• Computer Labs & Printing
• Software & Downloads
• Training & Instruction
  • OIT Training Workshops
  • Cisco Academy Training Center (CATC)
  • Classroom Technology (CTec)
  • Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC)
  • Student Evaluations (SEI)
  • Test Scanning
  • WVU eCampus
• Technology Resources
  • Students
  • Faculty/Staff
  • Software & Downloads
  • CentralID
  • MasterApps (Citrix)
  • MasterID
  • WVU Information Security Office
  • Scams & Phishing Information
  • Spam Information
  • Virus Information
  • Computer Security
• Web Hosting
  • WVU Web Services
  • Web Hosting (community.wvu.edu)
  • WVU eCampus
  • Online Course Development
• Wireless Network Access
• OIT Units
  • Associate Provost/CIO
  • OIT Human Resources
  • Information Security
  • Information Systems
    • Enterprise Systems Development (ESD)
    • Database Aministration (DBA)
    • Student Systems Mangement (SSM)
    • Systems Administration
    • Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC)
  • Information Technology Business Office
  • Telecommunications and Network Operations
    • Network Operations
    • Telecommunications
  • Support Services
    • Academic Information Services
    • Classroom Technology
    • Help Desk
    • LAN Services
    • Repair Services
    • Software Licensing
    • Technology Support Center
  • Technical Support Services
    • Application Administrators
    • Cisco Academy Training Center
    • Project Management Office
    • Training
• OIT Information
  • About OIT
  • Staff Listing
  • Contact OIT
  • OIT Jobs
  • Directors
  • OIT Units
  • Employee of the Quarter
• Policies & Procedures
  • OIT Policies
  • OIT Internal Policies
  • WVU Copyright Policies
  • Other WVU Policies
  • Federal Laws
  • State Laws
• Committees/Workgroups
  • AAIMS
  • ACAC
  • OIT Advisory Council
• Site Index

Policies & Procedures

• OIT University Policies & Procedures
• Internal OIT Policies & Procedures
• WVU Copyright Policies
• Other WVU Policies
• Federal Laws
• WV State Law

Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus Policy

Purpose

To establish a policy that ensures proper use of the West Virginia University email system by taking preventive measures against the proliferation of:

• Spam
• Computer Viruses

Scope

This policy applies to all University staff, faculty, administrators, officers and students (collectively, "users") using the University email system, including those on the regional campuses and Extended Learning sites.

Anti-Spam Policy

West Virginia University has the authority and responsibility to manage, control, and delete junk mail to prevent the unnecessary or inappropriate use of bandwidth and to also ensure that illegal, unwanted and unsolicited advertisements are not received on the University owned network. This policy establishes appropriate procedures to prevent email from known spammers from entering the WVU email system.

Spam, or junk mail, is unsolicited commercial email sent in bulk over the Internet. While costing the sender practically nothing, Spam puts both a cost and a burden on recipients by clogging up network bandwidth, consuming disk space, and wasting people's time with the nuisance of unwanted email.

In order to reduce this cost to the University, the email system shall use control measures, which may include but will not necessarily be limited to filters and subcription SPAM identification systems.

WVU shall take all reasonable steps to utilize methods which minimize the blocking of email which is not Spam, but reserves the right to put into effect measures to avoid the financial and personnel costs of Spam emails.

Additional Precautions Email Users Should Take

WVU email users should use these techniques to avoid receiving unwanted email:

• Do NOT publish your personal email address on public web sites
• Do NOT register with email directory services.
• Never reply to any spam you receive - DELETE IT!
• Use an alternative email address (such as free account from sites such as Excite, Hotmail, Yahoo!, Mailcity) to post to bulletin boards or forums.
• Contact the postmaster of the site that sent the spam by mailing postmaster@e-mail.address.
• Use anti-spamming software or services.

Anti-Virus Policy

The purpose of the Anti-Virus policy is to prevent infection of University computers and computer systems by computer viruses and other malicious code. This policy is intended to prevent major and widespread damage to user applications, files, and hardware and to prevent the financial losses resulting from such damage. The WVU email server has virus protection software set up to:

• inspect every incoming and outgoing message;
• automatically delete all email attachments that include, but are not limited to the following extensions: exe, pif, and bat
• clean, if possible, any virus recognized;
• delete the infected message if it cannot clean the virus. A warning message to this effect will arrive to both the sender and recipient.

Additional Precautions Email Users Should Take

All microcomputers (clients and servers) connected to the WVU computer network (herein referred to as "the network") or networked resources shall have WVU supported antivirus software (preferably the most current version) correctly installed, configured, activated, and updated with the latest version of virus definitions before or immediately upon connecting to the network. This antivirus software must be updated regularly and many are updated via the departmental network. If deemed necessary to prevent viral propagation to other networked devices or detrimental effects to the network, computers infected with viruses or other forms of malicious code (herein collectively referred to as "virus" or "viruses") shall be disconnected from the network until the infection has been removed.

If a microcomputer does not have supported antivirus software installed, it shall be installed according to one of the two following methods:

• If the installation source is a University-distributed CD-ROM, the antivirus software shall be installed before establishing any connection to the network. Upon establishing the initial network connection, the virus definitions shall be updated to the most current version immediately and before loading or installing any other software or data.
• If the installation source is a University server, the computer shall be connected to the network for the sole purpose of installing antivirus software from that server. The installation shall be performed immediately upon establishing the initial network connection and virus updates downloaded and installed before loading or installing any other software or data.
• WVU antivirus software web site: http://oit.wvu.edu/slic/norton.php.

Violation Procedure

The Office of Information Technology adheres to the following procedure to process policy violations, which may include Virus infections, email spam violations, copyright infringements, appropriate use violations, or any other OIT policy violations.

Questions or Problems

Questions, concerns or additional information about this and any OIT policy should be directed to the CIO office at OIT_Admin@mail.wvu.edu.

Responsibility

The Associate Provost for Information Technology (CIO) is the policy administrator for information technology resources and will ensure this process is followed. Additionally, Deans, Directors and Department Heads are responsible for compliance with University policy within their respective administrative areas.

Policy Last Updated: May 10, 2007

Updated November 13, 2007