LAITS Security Update and Reboot Policy

This article describes our routine policy for updates. In the event of a critical security vulnerability being announced, updates and reboots may be pushed more aggressively. The Information Security Office (ISO) policies require us to regularly apply security updates to all University-owned computers. Our goal is to make this process as unobtrusive as possible while balancing convenience with security.

You will need to occasionally restart your computer to apply these updates. Please regularly save your work to minimize the impact of this process.  

Windows users are encouraged to leave their computers on overnight and over the weekend so that updates can apply automatically outside of business hours. If your computer doesn't receive updates during this time, you may be forced to reboot your computer during business hours on the last Tuesday of each month. 

Mac users will see a UT-branded popup instructing them to apply software updates. This popup will continue to appear until the computer is updated.

• During the first 7 days after updates are available, the popup notification will appear four times a day at 6 AM, 10 AM, 2 PM and 6 PM. Users may defer installing the updates for the first 7 days.
• On the 8th day after updates are available, the popup will not go away until updates are applied. Mac users will not be forced to reboot by this popup, however the updates may require a reboot after being installed.