Technology@Wooster

dwaldron November 5th, 2008

At 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 10, the College will conduct a test of the ConnectED emergency notification system. This system is designed to allow the College to quickly notify members of our community of the existence of an emergency. Each student, faculty member and staff member is allowed to designate multiple email addresses, telephone numbers and text message addresses to receive emergency notifications. During the test, a message will be directed to each designated telephone number, email address and text message address.

If you have not already done so, I urge you to visit ScotWeb and to provide the appropriate numbers and addresses prior to the test on November 10. (Follow the “Emergency Contact Information” link. Students will find this link on the “Student” menu. Faculty and staff will find it on the “Employee” menu.) The help desk is available to provide any assistance you may require. If you do not specify emergency contact information, it is likely that default values will be designated for you.

I anticipate that a full test of the system will be conducted each semester. Aside from these important tests, the ConnectED system will only be used to contact members of the College community during emergencies.

David Waldron
Chief Information Technology Officer

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dwaldron August 27th, 2008

Recently several members of the campus community have fallen victim to a scam related to Wooster’s email services. Wooster’s online access for email is referred to as Scotmail, not webnews or webmail, and we are not currently updating our database of information. These messages are not legitimate. The spam message that many people have received comes from a fraudulent sender, not the Wooster IT department. It requests your username and password, country, state, and other personal information. Do not send your information in response to that email. If you have submitted your information by mistake, please change your password immediately at the following website: https://secureweb.wooster.edu/password

Members of the IT Staff will never ask you for your password or other personal data. Any type of notification from the Wooster IT Department will come from the address IT_ALERT@wooster.edu or helpdesk@wooster.edu.

While Wooster has a spam filter that catches millions of spam messages daily, many spam attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and can bypass even the most thorough filter settings. Many schools have reported similar issues with this webnews spam attack. Please take caution when opening messages that come from unknown senders or that contain suspicious attachments. Avoid emails that require you to submit personal information.

If you have questions regarding this and other potential spam messages, please contact the help desk at 330-287-3000 extension 4357 (HELP).

Below is an example of the message some users have received.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

>>> <webmailalertunit@gmail.com> 8/26/2008 6:42 PM >>> This is a WebNews Email Account UpdateSee the below mailing informationUpdate Your wooster.edu Email Account Now.Dear wooster.edu Email Owner,This message is from wooster.edu messaging center to all wooster.edu Email owners. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail center. We are deleting all unused wooster.edu email to create more space for new one. To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it’s a present used account.However wooster.edu has been receiving complaints from our customers for unauthorised use of the wooster.edu Email. As a result we are making an extra security check on all of our Customers mailbox in order to protect their information from theft and fraud.Warning!!! Email owner that refuses to update his or her Email,within 4 working days of receiving this warning will lose his or her Email permanently.Requested Information

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dwaldron January 9th, 2008

Last summer, IT implemented a network access control (NAC) system in all student residential spaces. The NAC is designed to prevent computers that are infected with viruses or worms and computers that are vulnerable to such infections from connecting to the campus network. This will prevent the spread of infection and help to ensure that the campus network and other IT resources operate effectively.

When students arrived on campus at the beginning of the fall semester and plugged a computer into a network jack, the NAC required that the student authenticate and register the computer. Following registration, a software agent was installed on the student’s computer. This agent scanned the computer for infection and vulnerabilities. If infections or vulnerabilities were detected, the student was directed to the appropriate IT resource for assistance. During that initial semester of the NAC’s operation, infected or vulnerable computers were not prevented from accessing the campus network. This was done to promote a smooth implementation of the NAC. From now on, student computers found to be infected or vulnerable to infection will be prevented from accessing the campus network. Students with infected or vulnerable computers will be directed to the appropriate resource for assistance.

Additional information about the NAC can be found in the following locations. Questions about the NAC should be addressed to the student help desk at xHELP (x4357).

• Network Access Control Set to Debut
• Network Access Control Implementation Set
• Network Services & Wireless Networking

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dwaldron November 7th, 2007

The Office of Information Technology has identified an issue with the MacBook line purchased for faculty and staff last year. Some of the Seagate hard drives installed in MacBooks that have matching model numbers (ST96812AS and ST98823AS) and firmware versions of 7.01 may lead to failure or data loss. Users can locate the firmware revision for their hard drives by going to Mac OS X’s System Profiler program, looking under Serial ATA.

According to a November 6, posting by Powerpage.org, “In test cases, ‘The read/write heads are detaching from the arm and plowing deep gouges into the magnetic platter,’ said Retrodata Managing Director Duncan Clarke. ‘The damage is mostly on the inner tracks, but some scratches are on the outer track — Track 0 — and once that happens, the drive is normally beyond repair.’”

Apple and Seagate are currently investigating the problem. There is no word yet on a recall from either group.

More information on the problem can be found at the following website:

http://www.techworld.com/storage/news/index.cfm?newsid=10532

The Office of Information Technology will be closely monitoring this problem and will alert users of any changes.

In the mean time, regular data back-ups are recommended. Each faculty and staff member is provided network storage space on Wooster’s file server. Important data files should be saved to the network storage space. Files stored on network storage spaces are routinely backed up by IT. Information on how to access these spaces can be found at the following web site:

http://www.wooster.edu/technology/help/networking/NFA.pdf

Bacause network storage space is limited, users are discouraged from storing personal MP3 or Wav files, Photos, and other multimedia files on these storage drives.

Questions can be directed to the Employee Help Desk at 330-287-3000 ext. 1111.

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dwaldron March 5th, 2007

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 extends Daylight Savings Time in the US by 4 weeks beginning in 2007. Daylight Savings Time will begin on March 11, 2007 and end on November 4, 2007. The time between the new DST dates and the original DST dates (March 11-April 1 and October 28-November 4) is referred to as Extended DST.

Most computer operating systems and applications are already updated to reflect this change. Others may require patches to be downloaded to operate properly with the change. The Office of Information Technology recommends that individuals install the correct update based on the operating system version on their computer. This should be done prior to March 11, 2007.

If you have any questions about Extended DST, please Contact the help desk at 330-287-3000 x4357 (HELP) for assistance.

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