Right from PC infancy, users have been plagued by computer "viruses" - malicious code that attacks data on the machine and / or get the machine to do something behind your back. Next to regular backup, the most important safety measure you can take is to have an anti-virus program installed and ensure that it is regularly updated. 

The university has a common license for one of the world's best anti-virus software products (Sophos). It may be used by all staff and students, also in their private machines and it keeps itself updated by regularly connect to the University’s update server. It is pre-installed on machines provided by the local IT support and can be easily downloaded and installed on all other machines.

There is therefore no excuse for not having your machine protected. And indeed it is forbidden to connect a machine to the university network if it is not protected by an updated anti-virus program of a recognized brand. 

How do I know if I got the virus?

Unlike the earliest viruses, which were there could be no doubt - the machine did not start or files were deleted or renamed, modern viruses or malware as it is commonly known, is far more sophisticated and make as little fuss as possible. Malware writing is no longer the pastime of nerd who want to be famous but is done by programmers employed by deeply criminal organizations and the purpose is to almost always to make money - either by stealing your personal data and use them or to "take over" your machine so that it can used to attack others. (A few attacks are politically motivated.) 

So it is difficult to know whether your PC is attacked, but if you suspect that it behaves "strangely" (eg. is inexplicably slow or connects to strange places) and your find that the anti-virus program or operating system is not updated, you must let the machine be examind by the  IT department. Usually, a machine can be "cleaned"; atother times it must be completely reinstalled. It is therefore extremely important that you always have a good backup of unique data on the machine (your own files and settings) so that it is no tragedy if the hard disk needs to be wiped.