Standard computer or research PC?

AU has thousands of users who have been given a PC or Mac from AU. These devices are potentially a giant attack surface for hackers, which means that there is a great focus on security around them. Among other things this means, that we must ensure that possible vulnerabilities in the software installed on them are fixed as soon as possible. This is done by updating them with the security patches released by the vendors.

All standard PCs purchased via our webshop are basically installed as an office computer with all the associated standard programs. In practice, this is done by the central team in AU IT regularly releasing updates that come from the suppliers which they recommend you install.

After the release, users have two days to complete the update and if the user does not reach it within that time, the system will force the update - including a restart of the computer, which is necessary to get the fixes activated. The updates are therefore rolled on to ensure that all AU’s machines always have the necessary security updates. If this were not done, one would quickly get into a situation where many of the users' computers are unprotected, which in the end in the worst case can lead to us compromising the entire IT Infrastructure at AU. We will not run that risk.

These forced updates are not always appropriate for the computers to be used for research. Therefore, it is always offered and recommended that you do not use standard computers for research, but that you instead use a so-called laboratory PC. Here, the local IT support in dialogue with the researcher can configure the machine so that, for example, automatic updates are omitted and that the user him-/herself decides when the update should take place. Here, however, it is important to determine that the update must be installed on the computer and that the user is held responsible for this. The user must also be aware that after they have manually updated the computer, it must be restarted so that it does not happen automatically- eg in the middle of the research.

The IT support can give advice as to whether your computer should be set up as a standard office computer or as a laboratory PC, so feel free to book an appointment with the IT support via our IT Service portal https://support.au.dk