What is SafeConnect?
When you first come to Harding University and try to access the internet from your dorm, you may be wondering what this thing called SafeConnect is and why you need to install it on your computer. Is it a way for the University to monitor your every movement or a way to keep you from watching your favorite YouTube videos? (Seriously I have overheard people discussing these things) It's actually much simpler and less of a 1984 scenario than you may be thinking. SafeConnect is a network registration system that ensures the users of a network are in compliance with the network policies. More simply put, when you try and get on the internet at a place that requires SafeConnect, you will be restricted until you download the SafeConnect policy key. That policy key will then check your computer for its compliance with the rules that the owner of the network set forth. In the case of Harding, this means that it makes sure you have a running Antivirus program and that your computer is set to at least automatically download important updates. Why would we feel the need to have all these requirements? Let me tell you a short story about an incident we went through several years ago that led to these precautions.
In September of 2001 a virus called the Nimda virus was released onto the internet. Due to its utilization of a variety of tactics for spreading from computer to computer, the Nimda virus became the internet's most widely spread virus in just over 20 minutes. Though Harding had security measures in place to stop the virus from spreading certain ways, it was still able to infect some students computers. From those infected computers, it was able to continue to spread to nearly all student-owned computers on campus. Harding had no choice but to completely shut down its internet to prevent Nimda from spreading once more after a student's computer had been cleaned. Then, members of the IS&T department as well as the DormNet Assistants at the time had to essentially go door to door in each dorm cleaning each person's computer. Only once every computer in a dorm had been cleaned could that dorm have internet again. And they did this for every dorm, working several 24 hour days to get everything straightened out. It was also the first (and hopefully last) time a computer virus has made it into Harding's yearbook.
This fiasco led to those in charge of Harding's network to look for ways to further protect students from viruses such as these. Eventually, Harding decided to use the SafeConnect tool to allow them to ensure that each and every student who accesses the internet at Harding has a layer of protection. This ensures that it would be extraordinarily more difficult for a virus to pass from computer to computer on our network, and we all can use the internet without fear of being infected by other students. So next time you get prompted on your computer to download and get registered with SafeConnect, just know that it is there to help you and everyone else. And as always, if you have problems or questions relating to it, you can give us a call here at DormNet!
In September of 2001 a virus called the Nimda virus was released onto the internet. Due to its utilization of a variety of tactics for spreading from computer to computer, the Nimda virus became the internet's most widely spread virus in just over 20 minutes. Though Harding had security measures in place to stop the virus from spreading certain ways, it was still able to infect some students computers. From those infected computers, it was able to continue to spread to nearly all student-owned computers on campus. Harding had no choice but to completely shut down its internet to prevent Nimda from spreading once more after a student's computer had been cleaned. Then, members of the IS&T department as well as the DormNet Assistants at the time had to essentially go door to door in each dorm cleaning each person's computer. Only once every computer in a dorm had been cleaned could that dorm have internet again. And they did this for every dorm, working several 24 hour days to get everything straightened out. It was also the first (and hopefully last) time a computer virus has made it into Harding's yearbook.
This fiasco led to those in charge of Harding's network to look for ways to further protect students from viruses such as these. Eventually, Harding decided to use the SafeConnect tool to allow them to ensure that each and every student who accesses the internet at Harding has a layer of protection. This ensures that it would be extraordinarily more difficult for a virus to pass from computer to computer on our network, and we all can use the internet without fear of being infected by other students. So next time you get prompted on your computer to download and get registered with SafeConnect, just know that it is there to help you and everyone else. And as always, if you have problems or questions relating to it, you can give us a call here at DormNet!
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