Viruses and Worms

From time to time as incidents are observed Telecom will inform VEN of any suspicious traffic that may be attributable to a virus or worm residing inside a school network.

VEN will undertake to immediately inform member schools in confidence should such an incident arise. Typically Telecom are able to provide VEN with dates, suspicious IP numbers and traffic types that schools should investigate.

It will then be the responsibility of the school to ensure that any issues that are uncovered are resolved. Schools may wish to seek assistance from their own technical support people or the Ministry of Education ICT Help Desk to facilitate the removal of any virus or worm.

All schools agree to VEN policies when joining up - so all computers should be running appropriate and up to date anti-virus software. All computers (PC and MAC) are capable of harbouring a virus or worm. (MAC users should be aware that Word macro viruses have been found on school networks.)

The eTrust anti-virus product is freely available to all state and integrated schools from the Ministry of Education. This should be installed on all computers, This should be considered mandatory.

All SchoolZone schools can dowload eTrust AV updates. Please see the relevant SchoolZone FAQ for details.