February 22nd, 2016

Today's topics:

Antivirus (AV) software will be changing at CLASSE

Cornell will stop providing Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) in the next few months and it will stop working at the end of October, 2016. SEP will no longer be available from Cornell for Lab or home use. As a result, we are providing a new AV program -- ESET Endpoint Security (EES) -- for use on CLASSE computers.

Antivirus on CLASSE Managed Computers

ESET Endpoint Security (EES) will be deployed in several stages.

1. First, during a normal update period (yet to be scheduled) we will deploy the ESET Remote Administrator (ERA) Agent. This should have no effect from a user perspective.
2. Second, during some subsequent scheduled update period that will be announced, SEP will be replaced by EES:
   1. SEP will be removed by the ERA Agent.
   2. Slightly later during that same update period, EES will be deployed by the ERA Agent.
3. Computers are likely to reboot when the EES installation has finished..
4. An initial antivirus scan will begin.
5. About 20 minutes later, EES will download its most recent policies and AV updates.
6. At the end of the scan you will be notified if EES's antivirus scan found any infected files. We will also be notified automatically.
   • NOTE: MOST such detections are likely to be cached files that your browser downloaded while you were browsing the web. These cached files are not dangerous as they are not executed automatically by Firefox. It is totally safe to remove them, or to ignore them.
   • You can ignore and close the notification window.
   • You can also choose to delete the detections.
   • You can open a service ticket if you feel personal attention from IT is needed based on what is found.

Antivirus on Personally Owned and Home Computers

Cornell is no longer providing any antivirus software for computers not owned by Cornell. You should make sure to uninstall SEP before the end of October, 2016, when it will cease to function, and replace it with an up to date AV product of your choice.

As a replacement for Symantec on all current versions of Windows, the central Security Office suggests the use of Microsoft's free Windows Defender. Other free and paid AVs are available. For example, you can purchase a yearly home license from ESET if you would like to use the same product that we will be using at CLASSE.

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request (or email service-classe@cornell.edu).

Other resources:

• CLASSE-IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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