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CaTS Blog

Important Information About Malware Threat

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Recently, a worldwide cyber-attack known as WannaCry Ransomware has affected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries. This malware is expected to make further attacks across the world in the coming week.

In order to protect your workstation from this attack, CaTS is requiring a full shut down and restart of all Windows PC machines.


What is the Threat?

Data stored on your computer could be deleted if affected by this attack. A security patch released by Microsoft this past March protects your workstation from being compromised when installed. To install this patch, follow the action steps below.


Actions Needed:

Perform a full Shut Down of your computer before powering it back on. A Restart or Log Off will not accomplish the patching process.
If you see messages referring to updating your computer after initiating the Shut Down, let the update finish. Do not unplug or hold down the power button as it could cause file corruption.
Once the computer fully shuts down it is safe to turn the computer back on for use.
Public computers in labs and classrooms are also at risk and should be shut down. If you manage any public computers, please perform the steps above to those machines as well.

Questions?

If you have any questions, issues, or receive a notice saying an update failed to install, contact the CaTS Help Desk at (937) 775-4827 for assistance.
 

CaTS Help Desk Hours to Change

Friday, May 12, 2017

Wright State Community Member,

Beginning May 15, the CaTS Help Desk will be reducing operating hours to help align the department with the current budget remediation. After careful analysis, the CaTS Help Desk will operate under the following hours:

  • Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m. – 7 p.m.
  • Friday: 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.
  • Saturday: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
  • Sunday: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.


Notes About This Change:

  1. CaTS will modify and extend hours to accommodate higher call volume periods, such as the beginning of Fall and Spring semesters.
  2. By using data pulled from call reporting metrics, CaTS was able to determine that approximately 95% of Help Desk calls made since the beginning of the 2017 calendar year fell within the new scheduled times.
  3. Emergency classroom support will still be available for classes occurring outside of the hours listed above.
  4. When the Help Desk is closed, visit the Accounts page (https://www.wright.edu/accounts) for password reset information.


For more details, visit
https://www.wright.edu/information-technology/blog/article/change-of-help-desk-hours.

Urgent: Phishing Scam Notice 5/3/17

Thursday, May 4, 2017

CaTS was recently notified of a phishing attempt that is Google-based. Wright State users have been receiving emails from known senders who have Google-based accounts, asking them to view a shared file. If the link is clicked, a user will then be asked to log in to their Google account to download the file. The message can be identified by looking in the “To:” field and seeing the following address:

“hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh @ mailinator.com"

If you receive one of these messages, please do not click the link or give out your personal information. Delete the message immediately.

New! Technology Training Program

Thursday, April 27, 2017

CaTS is excited to announce the launch of our new Technical Training Program, coming May 2017! This program is designed to help Wright State faculty and staff enhance their computer skills, gain valuable new ones, and expand their productivity at work.

Results from the 2016 CaTS Customer Satisfaction Survey indicated a want for technical training services to be provided on a variety of topics. In order to best serve our customers' needs, CaTS was able to restructure existing Client Services staff to allow for the design and delivery of a variety of technical training sessions. The first phase of this program will feature courses covering Office 365 Outlook Web App, Outlook 2016, SharePoint Sites, OneDrive for Business, and Skype for Business. These courses are designed with your busy schedules and unique learning needs in mind.

Course information, including descriptions and session times, can be found on the CaTS Training Workshops website. Register for a session today!

If you have questions about a certain session, or would like more information about the new technical training program, email cats-training@wright.edu.

Important Update: OneDrive for Business

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Due to the increasing demand for faculty and staff to transfer and share files to outside organizations, CaTS is activating the feature to share Microsoft OneDrive for Business files with users outside of Wright State.

This feature was not previously enabled due to security concerns. Though OneDrive for Business is considered secure cloud storage, compliance requirements covering sensitive data require the university to maintain access control over certain data types, and therefore cannot be stored outside of centrally managed storage and systems.

To clarify the acceptable use of OneDrive for Business the following policy guidelines apply:

Acceptable Data Types

  • General non-sensitive business documents
  • Non-regulated Research Data

Non-Acceptable Data Types

  • Social Security Numbers
  • Student Records covered under FERPA
  • Health Care Records - HIPAA
  • Financial Documents covered under the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act
  • Student Loan Information
  • Personally Identifiable Information not considered directory information
  • Research Data covered under ITAR, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), etc.

Sensitive data types should be stored on the Wright State network storage drives (H:, R:, and K: drives).

The University does not sanction personal Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, and other cloud storage solutions for the storing of official university data. Microsoft OneDrive for Business is the university’s recommended solution for cloud file storage.

Request for documents under ‘Sunshine Laws’, or in response to subpoena, require WSU to produce documents on demand; therefore cloud storage needs to be accessible to respond to such requests. Microsoft OneDrive for Business provides the eDiscovery tools needed to respond appropriately. In addition, state law requires data stored in the cloud be kept within the borders of the United States, which many cloud solutions do not.

CaTS is now offering OneDrive and file storage training through our Technical Training program. Register for a workshop today!
To read more about OneDrive for Business, including instructions on how to share files with external users, visit https://www.wright.edu/information-technology/services/onedrive-for-business.

Take Our Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

As a customer of Computing and Telecommunications Services (CaTS), we need your feedback. As Wright State University’s central information technology organization, your input is critical to our improvement efforts. Please click on the link below and fill out the quick survey.

https://wright.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_57tgKtevZBNY5cV

Your anonymous responses will help us to improve the quality, timeliness, and breadth of the services we offer. If you would like for us to contact you, please include your contact information at the end of the survey.

When complete, survey results will be available to view at https://www.wright.edu/information-technology/about/office-of-the-cio.

Results from the 2016 survey can be found here: https://www.wright.edu/sites/www.wright.edu/files/page/attachments/cats-2016-survey-results.pdf

If you have any questions, please contact the CaTS Help Desk at (937) 775-4827, or send an email to helpdesk@wright.edu.

Systems Restored 3/7/17

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Earlier system connectivity issues have been resolved. 

If you experience further issues, contact the CaTS Help Desk at (937) 775-4827.

System Outages for 3/7/17

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Currently, a number of Wright State systems are experiencing intermittent connection issues. CaTS is working to identify these issues and will notify the campus community when they have been resolved.

Office 365 App Launcher Issues

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Currently, some services within Office 365 are not available through the online App Launcher (grid in the top left corner of your Outlook Web App email or online calendar). If you need to access these services (such as OneDrive, SharePoint Sites, etc.) you can do so at the following link:

https://raidermailwright-my.sharepoint.com

This link will take you in to your OneDrive account, and you can use the grid in the top left to access all of your Office 365 services. As this is not a Wright State specific issue, we are actively monitoring Microsoft’s system alert dashboard for updates.

We will notify the campus community when the issue has been resolved. For further questions, contact the CaTS Help Desk at (937) 775-4827.

Information on Panopto Lecture Capture

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Wright State Faculty and Staff:

As some of you already know, Panopto was recently recommended to be the university’s new media management tool. Along with a number of new features and benefits, Panopto also offers  lecture capture capabilities currently provided by the Tegrity lecture capture system.

Panopto has been extensively evaluated (in use on campus since Fall 2015) and is now being recommended as the best choice for a media management tool, and one that could replace Tegrity for lecture capture capabilities.

The Information Technology committee of the Faculty Senate has presented this solution for final consideration to the Faculty Senate, who will vote on it next month. If approved, the Tegrity contract will be allowed to expire on June 30, 2017, and moving forward Panopto will be used for lecture capture. If you have concerns regarding this recommendation, please contact Terri Klaus (CTL), Dr. T. Wishgoll (Chair of the IT committee of the Faculty Senate), and/or a Faculty Senator so that your concern can be addressed before action by the Faculty Senate in March.

If this solution is approved, all Tegrity recordings through April 30, 2017 will be saved, and CTL staff can work with you to import any Tegrity video you would like to keep into Panopto. If you would like to convert any of your Tegrity recordings into Panopto now, please refer to the Tegrity Do-It-Yourself conversion documentation on the CTL website:

https://www.wright.edu/center-for-teaching-and-learning/resources/tegrit...


The Center for Teaching and Learning is also offering the following workshops/tutorials to help make the conversion from Tegrity to Panopto as easy as possible.

https://www.wright.edu/center-for-teaching-and-learning/workshops
https://www.wright.edu/center-for-teaching-and-learning/resources/panopt...


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WHY THIS CHANGE IS HAPPENING

Since 2015, faculty and staff members (including those of the Faculty Senate IT committee, the Faculty Advisory Board of CTL, and CTL instructional designers) were invited to engage in a process of evaluating several potential new media management solutions. As a result of this evaluation, Panopto was chosen to be the best solution to serve instructional needs.

Along with having built-in lecture capture capabilities, Panopto offers the following benefits that faculty involved in the evaluation process found useful:

  • Integrated with Pilot
  • Streaming video playback directly in browser
  • Multiple publishing options
  • Detailed analytics
  • Video editing (a significant update from editing options in Tegrity)
  • Variable speed playback
  • Upload capabilities for students

Although this was not a primary consideration, using Panopto for lecture capture instead of Tegrity also saves the university $50,000 per year. If you have any questions or concerns about this change, please contact Terri Klaus in CTL at (937) 775-4965, or email terri.klaus@wright.edu.

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