itsnews On Tuesday 21 June, we will be upgrading the University’s Sophos Anti-Virus system and this will bring more enhancements to this system, as well as increased security features.
At 6pm, this update will be enabled on the system and customers may see a longer than usual update process. This should not require a reboot on systems currently running version 9.5. Please note that this is not available for Mac OS X.
To check that you are running the latest version, right-click on the Sophos icon and select ‘Open Sophos Endpoint Security and Control’ and the version detail is displayed in the ‘Status’ box on the left hand side as shown below.
If you on a Windows based PC and are not running version 9.5, please contact its-help@reading.ac.uk to arrange for this to be updated.
System Benefits:
Enhanced system memory scanning
This particular development improves identification and removal of rootkits concealed in system memory. It can also expose any additional threat that was being hidden by the rootkit.
Optimized on-demand scanning
In response to customer requests, the impact that a scheduled scan has on the computer has now been optimised. This is on Windows Vista or later, where Sophos Endpoint Security and Control intelligently adjusts the amount of CPU and disk input/output that the scan is allowed to consume, based on the active user’s interactivity. If the computer user is not present, Endpoint Security and Control allows the scan to consume more resources to complete the scan more quickly, whereas if the user is working, the system recognises this.
Location Roaming
This feature saves wide area bandwidth by trying to configure the computer to update from its closest location. It enables roaming computers to fetch updates from a share location close to where they are physically located rather than going back to the home location. Computers look for other computers in the same location that use the same subscription and, if one is found, use the same update location.