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There are a number of practical ways in which all staff and students can minimise
their risk of virus or spyware infection.
Sharing your hard-drive space is very risky.
Windows makes it easy to share files with your friends over a computer
network. You just right click and share the drive. Sharing your hard-drive
space is very risky. Many viruses spread via windows shares that have
no password, "open shares". You should always put a password
on your windows share. If you are only making a file available to someone
else, then make the share "read-only".
Viruses can spread through Instant Messaging software
Instand messaging applications such as ICQ, MSN Messenger and IRC
also allow you to share files. Viruses can use these applications to spread.
Viruses like W32.funnyFiles.worm have been written to spread via MSN Messenger.
Peer to Peer software allows people to send files that contain
viruses
Software like Kazaa, Gnutella, Napster, etc are often used for sharing files, often files which breach copyright laws. You should be aware that they do more than just share files. They allow
people to send files that contain viruses to your PC. Viruses, like W32.Gnuman.worm,
take advantage of how P2P software works to spread itself.
You should always
be careful with files that you know have been downloaded from these sources and it is recommended that P2P software not be used in the QUT environment due to these risks.
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