Operating System Updates for Unix

Staff members in the Division of Information Technology (IT) regularly monitor security issues concerning Unix operating systems. Unix workstations that are maintained by IT staff will receive security patches as needed.

Members of the Rice community who maintain their own Unix workstations should regularly monitor the web sites of the operating system vendors, or subscribe to security mailing lists to stay current on all security issues. Failure to do so may result in a security compromise of the workstation from an off-campus attacker. A security compromise will likely result in the workstation being temporarily disabled on the network in the minimal case, to complete data loss in the worst case. In all situations there will be considerable disruption to the operation of the workstation.

Security web sites of interest are Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics (SGI), and IBM. In addition, CERT/CC supplies security advisories for a wide range of operating systems and software and is an excellent source of information.