Help Desk Q & A
Here are some recent questions we’ve been getting a lot of at the Help Desk this week:
Q: My computer is notifying me it is infected, and prompting me to download software to fix the problem. What should I do?
A: Don’t do anything. You’re likely being prompted to download and install malware, harmful software which may infect your computer. The Help Desk has seen a rash of these issues over the past week. In each case, a pop-up window appears informing you your computer is infected with adware, spyware, malware and/or a virus, and offers a link to run a “scan” on your computer. By clicking the link, you’re unknowingly giving permission to download malware and infect your computer.
This is also called “scareware,” software that scares you into downloading and infecting your computer, and unfortunately it’s becoming quite effective. We’ve posted about this type of infection before. If the above happens to you, exit your web browser. If you’re on a University-owned computer and it comes back the next time you restart your browser, call the Help Desk or your local area or college net admin.
Most importantly, be careful where you’re going on the web. All of the infections we’ve seen have been the result of people clicking links in personal email accounts, on Facebook, or browsing websites they really shouldn’t be accessing while at work.
Q: Why do I see two windows asking me for my username and password when trying to log in to Google Apps?
A: In Google Chrome, accessing the Google Apps login page displays a pop-up window for username and password (see below):
Ignore this window. It’s just a result of how Chrome interacts with the secure access login page we’ve implemented. Close the pop-up window, and log in normally.
Q: Why do I have to reset my password twice when I change my BroncoWeb password every 90 days? I can never log into my computer after changing my password.
A: Depending on how your computer is configured, you may have a local computer password. When you change your BroncoWeb password, your computer’s operating system has no way of knowing. So, you log in with your new password to access the network, but the computer is expecting the old password to log in to the computer itself. Thus, you have to reset the local computer password to match your new network password.
See info on our Password page on the Help Desk website to learn more.
Q: When are you going to support Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard?
A: When we’re ready! We have a lot of work to do before Windows 7 will be available for University computers, and Snow Leopard still doesn’t have an enterprise antivirus client (plus, vendors like Adobe still need to work out some software kinks with Apple). There’s really no business purpose at this time for either Windows 7 or Snow Leopard. We’ll announce support for these new operating systems when we’re ready.
