When it comes to anti-malware protection, today's university IT departments have their work cut out for them. Network managers must walk the fine line between enabling a highly collaborative, non-restrictive environment, and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and computing resources. This is no easy task, especially if the state of the academic network, the current threat landscape, and common user practices are surveyed. Intrusions can lead to huge productivity losses, strains on already tight budgets, and blemishes on hard-earned reputations. Adding to the slew of data security issues already plaguing college and university campuses is an onslaught of stealth malware and botnet attacks. In this article, the author discusses how network security professionals within higher education support academic freedom and protect constituents, resources, and data. With good old-fashioned ingenuity and the right tools in place, universities can succeed at malware detection and prevention to improve network security. The author suggests that by combining anti-malware solutions with existing security controls, any college or university can create a coordinated and multilayered approach that guards against today's most sinister threats, and provides protection at all entry points including the internet gateway, messaging gateway, endpoint clients, endpoint servers, and the network.