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- Install Anti-Virus Software
While MIT does its best to prevent virus attacks, no computer is immune to them. To encourage protection of your computer, MIT provides anti-virus software for free.
For more information about virus protection at MIT, see: http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/ist/topics/virus/. - Utilize Anti-Spyware Software
While virus protection software offers some protection from spyware, we recommend using MS Defender on your Windows virtual machines for additional protection. For more information about spyware, see: Dealing with Spyware and Other Malware
- Choose Strong Passwords
Weak passwords can be guessed, thus giving someone else access to your files and your system. Create passwords that are at least eight
characters long, containing numbers, upper and lower case letters, and symbols. More information on creating strong passwords can be found at
http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/ist/topics/network/passwords.html. - Follow Security Recommendations
IS&T provides platform-specific security recommendations to address security concerns with each operating system. See: Security Recommendations by Platform - Keep your Operating Systems Updated
It is equally important to keep your host and virtual operating systems updated as compromises can occur in either kind of system. Install operating system security updates to keep your system current and protected from known vulnerabilities. We strongly recommend utilizing automatic updates, but note that virtual systems can only take updates when they are running. If your virtual system has not been started in some time (or is rarely left running long enough to take an update), we recommend you run a manual update as soon as you start your virtual system. For more information, see: MIT Windows Automatic Update Service Red Hat Network and Update Services: Macintosh - Maintain Like Risk Postures for All Machines (Virtual and Host)
Your system is only as secure as the least secure virtual or host machine. All guests on a host machine should have like risk posture - same level of accessibility, data sensitivity and level of protection. If the any guest is more vulnerable than other guests or your host, it could be an entry to compromise the rest of your system. - Limit Host Access
Access to the host should be limited (firewalled off). - Snapshots of Virtual Machines
When taking a snapshot of a virtual machine and then branching off, make sure to save the image at the instance before the branch (the trunk) rather than at the branch level to ensure security patches are most up to date.
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