OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 19, May 2009
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
For the up-to-the minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews:
http://sysnews.ncsu.edu
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State University Help Desk:
http://help.ncsu.edu
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01: Oracle calendar migration to WolfWise postponed until June 5
02: TurningPoint “clickers” chosen as campus standard
03: OIT to sponsor Identity and Access Management (IAM) Brown Bag Lunch and Learn
04: SAR training scheduled for May 27
05: Certification of security access to the HR and Financial systems due May 29
06: Adobe releases security updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat
07: Password sensitivity checking will start on May 17
08: Symantec antivirus license ends June 22
09: Faculty posted grades in SIS
10: OIT is now on Twitter
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
01: Oracle calendar migration to WolfWise postponed until June 5
The WolfWise implementation team has encountered several issues that resulted in the postponement of the May 15 Oracle calendar migration. In order to ensure a quality deliverable, the team will delay the migration until the evening of Friday, June 5.
The team has posted specific information related to the outstanding issues on the WolfWise Web site (no longer available) and will provide weekly progress updates.
As a result of the new migration date, the Oracle calendar server will not be decommissioned until three weeks after the migration (June 26). At that time, Oracle users will no longer be able to access their calendar data via the Oracle system.
Oracle users who choose to have their calendar data migrated to WolfWise will also have their Unity (Cyrus) email migrated. WolfWise is a combined calendar and email product, so the best course of action is to migrate both email and calendar data to it. WolfWise email and calendar will be available over the migration weekend in a limited capacity. Users may be able to log in and review email during the migration; however, full system functionality should not be expected until 8 a.m. Monday, June 8. For more information about the Oracle calendar migration, view the recent SysNews announcement.
To help ease your transition to WolfWise, the team has planned several demonstrations, training sessions and question and answer sessions just prior to and immediately after the migration. These sessions are for users migrating from the Oracle calendar to WolfWise; however, all are welcome to attend. For schedules, please check the WolfWise Training Web site (no longer available). If you have any questions or concerns regarding the migration, please contact the NC State Help Desk at help@ncsu.edu or 515-HELP (4357).
02: TurningPoint “clickers” chosen as campus standard
Vice Chancellor for IT Marc Hoit recently announced that TurningPoint classroom response systems have been chosen as NC State’s standard “clickers” for classroom use. OIT-ClassTech will increase the number of classrooms equipped with TurningPoint systems. In general, the TurningPoint clicker devices will be purchased and maintained by students. If faculty and departments choose to use a different clicker technology in their classes, they will be expected to provide clickers for students to use. For more information about this decision, see the memorandum to deans, directors and department heads. Send questions about using clickers in classrooms to classtech@ncsu.edu or contact the NC State Help Desk at 515-HELP (4357).
03: OIT to sponsor Identity and Access Management (IAM) Brown Bag Lunch and Learn
OIT is sponsoring a Brown Bag Lunch and Learn session, “Identity & Access Management (IAM) Overview and Roadmap for NC State,” from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26 in 216 Scott Hall. Mark Scheible of OIT Security and Compliance will talk about how the components that make up an IAM system work together, including examples of how Identities, Authentication, Authorization, Group Management, and Federation all fit into the big picture. Find out what IAM projects are taking place and what’s being proposed to provide IAM solutions for the university. A question and answer period will follow the presentation. To register, visit ClassMate.
04: SAR training scheduled for May 27
Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers is scheduled from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27 in the EAS Training Lab (302 Harrelson Hall). Please visit the Training Web site to view available classes and to sign up for training.
05: Certification of security access to the HR and Financial systems due May 29
The OIT-Security and Compliance unit is requesting campus deans/vice chancellors to review and certify their staff’s access to the Human Resources and Financial systems by Friday, May 29. The University Data Management Procedures require each dean/vice chancellor to review semi-annually (usually in April and October) his/her staff’s security access to university computer systems and that their security profiles be certified on an annual basis.
To review your staff’s security access to the Human Resources and Financial systems, use the Web Security Report. The security report now shows both active and inactive employees who are currently assigned to your department/OUC and have access to the system. A new report, the Web Security Exception Report, displays both active and inactive individuals who are not employed in your department/OUC, but who have security access to your department. This report is only available to SAR Division Level Approvers.
Please review these online reports to ensure that your staff members have the appropriate security access to perform their current jobs. Any changes or deletions that need to be made to the employee’s access profiles for the Human Resources or Financial systems should be entered using the Security Access Request (SAR) application available via the MyPack Portal. For an individual who is no longer in your department, please contact the individual’s new department to request changes to or removal of the access using the SAR Approver Lookup link.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the NC State Help Desk at help@ncsu.edu or 515-HELP (4357).
06: Adobe releases security updates for Adobe Reader and Acrobat
OIT Security is recommending that campus users apply as soon as a possible the Adobe security updates for Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1 and earlier versions.
Adobe Inc. released security updates on May 12 to address a vulnerability that causes the applications to crash and that could allow an attacker to gain control of a user’s computer system, if users open a malicious PDF file. Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader running on Windows, Unix and Apple OS X are vulnerable and should be patched.
OIT Security has received reports of this vulnerability being exploited when users open malicious PDF email attachments or PDF files on Web pages. Be careful not to open PDF email attachments from untrusted sources.
According to Adobe’s Web site, users of Adobe Reader 9.1 and Acrobat 9.1 and earlier versions should update to Adobe Reader 9.1.1 and Acrobat 9.1.1. Users of Acrobat 8 should update to Acrobat 8.1.5, and users of Acrobat 7 should update to Acrobat 7.1.2. Adobe has provided Adobe Reader 8.1.5 and Adobe Reader 7.1.2 updates for those Adobe Reader users who can’t update to Adobe Reader 9.1.1
To download the update for your operating system, you may use the instructions below or go to the Adobe Security Bulletin. Before downloading this software, please contact your department’s LAN administrator.
To install Adobe updates:
1. Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
2. Select Help, then Check for Updates.
3. Select Download and Install Updates.
4. Click Continue to restart Acrobat.
5. When you see the message: “The updating process is finished,” click the Quit button.
For questions, contact the NC State Help Desk at help@ncsu.edu or 515-HELP (4357).
07: Password sensitivity checking will start on May 17
Starting May 17, the case of the letters in your password will be checked when you log in to all online applications, including the MyPack Portal. This change will help maximize the strength of your password. It’s always a good idea to use mixed case, numbers, and special characters along with other techniques to help maximize the strength of your password.
For more information about strong passwords, including setting up three questions for user identification and authentication (UIA), which can be used by the Help Desk to reset your password, visit the Password Change Tool Web page. If you have any questions, please contact the NC State Help Desk at help@ncsu.edu or 515-HELP (4357).
08: Symantec antivirus license ends June 22
OIT will end support for all NC State-provided Symantec antivirus products on Monday, June 22. Because OIT’s license for Symantec products will expire prior to the end of the fiscal year, the campus Symantec parent servers will be taken offline on June 22. People who are still using Symantec antivirus products will receive notification of virus definitions being out of date 30 days after the last time the antivirus client checks in with the server.
OIT encourages remaining Symantec users to upgrade to NC State’s new antivirus products: Trend Micro OfficeScan 8 for Windows and Intego VirusBarrier X5 for Mac OS X. Antivirus protection is required of all NC State students, faculty, and staff connecting to the campus network.
For more information about the new antivirus software or to download the software, please visit the NC State Antivirus Resources Web site. If you have any questions, please contact the NC State Help Desk at help@ncsu.edu or 515-HELP (4357).
09: Faculty posted grades in SIS
The Student Information System (SIS) Team reports that faculty have successfully submitted and posted grades for the first time in the new SIS. The team is currently running end-of-term processes to calculate academic standing for students. For more project information, view the SIS Web site.
10: OIT is now on Twitter
Did you know that OIT is on Twitter? Twitter is a free social micro blog for communicating real-time. You can follow @NCStateOIT for OIT tweets in three areas: advertising (IT-related workshops, seminars, services, events, etc.), announcements (outages, changes, security, organizational, etc.) and industry news (IT, IT in education, social media in IT, social media in education, etc.). For more information, see the recently published article on NC State OIT’s Use of Twitter for IT Communication.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Information about OIT News:
OIT News is an electronic news bulletin published monthly
Office of Information Technology
Box 7109
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7109
https://oit.ncsu.edu
To subscribe or cancel your subscription online at http://lists.ncsu.edu
To subscribe by email, send the following message to mj2@lists.ncsu.edu:
subscribe oitnews
To unsubscribe by email, send the following message to mj2@lists.ncsu.edu:
unsubscribe oitnews
(These messages should be sent to mj2@lists.ncsu.edu, not to the OIT News list itself.)
For help with computing at NC State, contact the NC State Help Desk:
help@ncsu.edu, phone 515-HELP (4357), or visit Room 101, West Dunn Building.
Send your comments or suggestions about OIT News to Rhonda Greene, OIT Information and News Services, at rhonda_greene@ncsu.edu.