How to Protect Your Computer and Church Information

[Mikerowaved]

awisden, I'm a little confused...

As are many of us. Here's my take on this thread...

Most of the information provided in McDanielCA's original post was of a generic nature. It appears to be "good practice" guidelines designed for those using computers within the church's corporate environment, but could also extend to home PC's. Her last line explained this by stating, "Follow these simple steps to do your part in keeping information secure at work and at home." This tells me she wasn't necessarily addressing the church's farm of ward and stake PC's, but rather giving good general advise. Some of the followup comments by others suggest this.

Here's where it gets confusing, as awisden's post seems to be bouncing between Church Headquarters (CHQ) and ward/stake computers. They are very different in their installations, support, and approved software. The switch from Novell Groupwise to MS Exchange/Outlook by CHQ was explained HERE a little over a year ago, and we have been told they also have broad licensing for MS Office 2007. This is NOT the case for ward/stake computers. The free OpenOffice.org is the approved office software suite for those installations.

We also know that CHQ is switching from Symantec to Sophos, but ward/stake PC's are (so far) not included in that switch. (I don't know much about Family History Center PC's, so that's why I'm not discussing them.)

As far as the STS position goes, yes, they are important, and (IMO), yes they have their hands tied on several security issues regarding the ward/stake PC's. These issues have been mentioned in other areas of this forum and again here. This is in no way their fault, it's the job and set of rules they've been given to play by. We are all eagerly looking forward to the day we will get a solid green light to fully update and patch these ward/stake PC's, thereby making them more secure.

[McDanielCA]

I'm sorry for all of the confusion on this matter. Mike, you are quite right. The beginning portion of this article mentions that great efforts are made to protect Church computers and information. And Adam Wisden, as a TSR, has seen many problems (even on Church computers on which extra precautions are taken) that could be remedied by following the general safety measures that every person can do outlined thereafter:

The article stated:

That said, Church computer users can include certain daily practices to help mitigate the possibility of your computer being compromised.

I will change this article to read:

That said, you can include certain daily practices to help mitigate the possibility of your computer being compromised.

[JamesAnderson]

At home I use a web content filter that is now becoming well known as an element in one's antivirus protection, and understand that the Church once used the same software (the corporate version) before the company that developed it was bought out.

The big feature is they go after specific sites and add them to the filtering list, so one shold never see the page that would otherwise infect them. And it's not just limited to inappropriate sites either. At home it might be innocent online game sites, and sometimes shopping sites, or placeholder pages for defunct domains or domains that do not have a webpage up yet, as some registrars allow some type of spyware to be spread via these types of pages.

The other big feature is the blocking of existing spyware from being able to 'phone home'.

My 'bot' and harmful/advertising cookie load from these types of sites, including many web ad sites, has dropped since I installed the filter, from over 75 a week to one a week now. I saw a 60 percent drop the week after I installed the filter. That using this filtering along with two other antivirus programs. And using this and also other identified best practices including those outlined in the blog post, I have not gotten trojans either.

[awisden-p40]

awisden, I'm a little confused. I haven't seen any transition from norton to sophos. I certainly haven't seen Office 2007 become available.

I do not know why you have not yet seen MS-Office 2007. It was made available on the Application 5.7 DVD over a year ago. We always roll new products out to corporate first, where the environment it better controlled. The Application 5.9 DVD is currently in testing and should be released soon. This new DVD will have Sophos on it. The new Desktop 5.9 image which was just released about a month ago has Sophos on it also.

Sophos has been made available to many type III (remote)sites through LANDesk. If it is not available through the policy based delivery then it is probably because of a policy, and you will have to wait for the 5.9 Application DVD. However, my understanding is that most machines have access to it.

Thank you again for your questions and remarks!

[awisden-p40]

SAV has always updated daily for me at work and my customer's sties. Not sure why why it behaved that way for the church.

They way the standard corporate desktop was configured was that by default SAV would contact the Church servers for updates once a week. One of the problems. We found that most of the time updates we received were nearly 1MB or more and this was often difficult (time consuming) for many sites, that are still on dial-up. While looking into Sophos we found that we received updates more often, and they were much smaller maybe a couple hundred kb instead.

Thanks!

[aebrown]

I do not know why you have not yet seen MS-Office 2007. It was made available on the Application 5.7 DVD over a year ago. We always roll new products out to corporate first, where the environment it better controlled. The Application 5.9 DVD is currently in testing and should be released soon. This new DVD will have Sophos on it. The new Desktop 5.9 image which was just released about a month ago has Sophos on it also.

I don't know who you think has received these things, but I'm pretty connected to the Clerk community, I'm a STS, an MLS beta tester, and subscribe to a clerk e-mail list in addition to participation here on LDSTech.

I have never heard of "Application 5.7 DVD" nor "Desktop 5.9". If these items were rolled out a year and a month ago, respectively, it was certainly not to the majority of the units of the Church. Are you only talking about use within Church administration?

Sophos has been made available to many type III (remote)sites through LANDesk. If it is not available through the policy based delivery then it is probably because of a policy, and you will have to wait for the 5.9 Application DVD. However, my understanding is that most machines have access to it.

I don't know what a "Type III" site is -- is that a ward or stake administrative computer? To whom were these items rolled out? Will they be rolled out to wards and stakes?

[russellhltn]

What Alan said. I'm also connected to the clerk community and I've never heard of those things. They may well have been sent to such units as Employment offices, FM groups, Institutes and/or other church employee sites, but I serious doubt if they've ever been sent to wards, stakes, or FHCs in any numbers or I would have heard about it.

[awisden-p40]

In my opinion the support model is not yet fully uniform, so we do have some differing levels and types of support based on the department and locations. I understand that their is a local unit support number for technology specialist to call with support issues for local units, I am not sure how they do updates. If you are the technology specialist you can call the support number and ask these questions.

[lajackson]

In my opinion the support model is not yet fully uniform, . . .

This is so very true.

I understand that their is a local unit support number for technology specialist to call with support issues for local units, I am not sure how they do updates.

The kind and simple answer is that they do not do updates. And that is the reason there is so much interest in your statement.

It would be wonderful to have the kind(s) of updates you are describing. I have heard for years that they are coming. In fact, I have held several different callings since then. [grin]

And this is why I thank you for sharing what you can. There may be some future hope. It does appear to me that what you are sharing is limited to the high rise, though. And that is fine. I can use it as a pattern where I work.