OIT News – October 2010

OIT News

Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 36, October 2010

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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

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01: OIT to implement MyPack Portal upgrade on Nov. 21 
02: Cyber Security Awareness Month: Protect your data and computer
03: Come to the emergency preparedness road shows on Oct. 20
04: IT Student Advisory Group to meet Oct. 26
05: GroupWise 8 deployment is scheduled for December
06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “What’s New in Facebook and “The Genius of WordPress

07: SAR training sessions scheduled

08: Password protect sensitive data on your mobile devices

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01: OIT to implement MyPack Portal upgrade on Nov. 21

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) will upgrade the MyPack Portal from version 8.9 to 9.1 on Sunday, Nov. 21. The MyPack Portal, the gateway to campus online systems and services, will be unavailable during the upgrade, which is tentatively scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon. Check SysNews for the latest updates.  

 

The key user features and benefits of the upgrade include new breadcrumb style navigation across the top of the portal Web pages and a new drop-down menu indicating recently used pages. Branding within the portal will change to conform to NC State Web Guidelines and Standards. Technology components include new servers and upgrades to PeopleSoft Peopletools 8.50 and to Oracle Database 11g. For further information, you may contact Jack Foster of OIT Enterprise Application Services (EAS) at jack_foster@ncsu.edu or Connie Reitfort of OIT EAS at connie_reitfort@ncsu.edu. 

 

 

02: Cyber Security Awareness Month: Protect your data and computer
Campus computer users are invited to attend two OIT Cyber Security Awareness Month presentations aimed at protecting their data and computers.

Organized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance, National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which falls in October, is an annual effort to “increase the awareness and prevention of online security problems.”

Privacy and security of sensitive data have become the focus of new legislation and of the news media. John Baines of OIT Security and Compliance will show you how to protect sensitive university data during his presentation, “Data Sensitivity,” from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22 in the Brown Room of Talley Student Center. To register, visit Classmate.

In addition to protecting your data, there are also free security tools you can use to make your PC tougher to steal. Join Tim Gurganus of OIT Security and Compliance to discuss “Computer Security for Real People” from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27 in Room 1228 of Engineering Building II or from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29 in the Brown Room of Talley Student Center. You will also learn about laptop tracking software, privacy and social networks, and modern malware. To register for either session, visit Classmate.

03: Come to the emergency preparedness road shows on Oct. 20

The Department of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery and OIT Organizational Resilience Services invite all faculty and staff to attend one of two open forums on Wednesday, Oct. 20 to learn about emergency preparedness both at home and at work. Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Talley Student Center Grand Ballroom.

During the forums, you will learn about continuity planning, business continuity regulation compliance, grant opportunities (state, federal and local), emergency planning for the university, disaster exercises, family preparedness, IT resilience and disaster recovery, and more. There will also be a demo of version 10 of the Living Disaster Recovery Planning System (LDRPS), software currently used on campus for creating business continuity plans. You will also meet members of the University Business Continuity Committee and hear a guest speaker. Come prepared to ask questions and get answers.

 

04: IT Student Advisory Group to meet Oct. 26

OIT’s Information Technology Student Advisory Group will meet from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26 in Room 356 of Witherspoon Student Center. The Student Advisory Group is a forum for students of all affiliations to share their thoughts and ideas about the way technology is implemented at NC State.

 Topics will include the campus portal, cyber security and whatever topics students bring to discuss. Please encourage students to take this opportunity to have their voices heard by Dr. Marc Hoit, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, and to help shape the future of IT at NC State. For more information, visit the IT Student Advisory Group Web site, join the group’s listservor contact Jennifer Riehle at jen_riehle@ncsu.edu.

05: GroupWise 8 deployment is scheduled for December
The WolfWise Implementation Team will upgrade the GroupWise servers to GroupWise 8 (GW8) in early December. WolfWise is NC State’s implementation of Novell GroupWise for its single centrally-supported calendaring and e-mail solution.

The team will begin testing GW8 in the test environment within the next two weeks. Last month, the team completed the conversion of the legacy Netware servers to the new WolfWise Linux servers.

The GW8 deployment will apply back-end fixes for known bugs, improve IMAP stability, allow for ActiveSync (for mobile devices) and improve the performance of Windows, Mac, Web and Linux clients. Once GW8 is deployed, customers may choose to upgrade to the GW8 client on their computers, but this action is not required. Customers who do not upgrade their clients should see no difference in service.

06: OIT Lunch & Learns: “What’s New in Facebook and “The Genius of WordPress
OIT’s Brown Bag Lunch and Learn series will present the following upcoming workshops:

“What’s New in Facebook” will be held from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 26 in 216 Scott Hall. Twanda Baker of OIT Design, Education and Outreach will highlight recent changes in the Facebook interface, new privacy setting tweaks (including controlling the use of profile pictures in ads) and changes in third-party application support. She’ll also discuss two new Facebook applications: Places and Questions. To register, visit Classmate.

“The Genius of WordPress” will be held from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17 in 216 Scott Hall. Jennifer Riehle of OIT Design, Education and Outreach will talk about what makes WordPress, a popular content management system and blog tool, so awesome; how to get it and get started (including themes, widgets, plug-ins and more); and conclude with a look at what’s new in the latest release. To register, visit Classmate.

07: SAR training sessions scheduled

Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Oct. 26 and Tuesday, Nov. 30 in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. SAR training will not be held in December. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.

08: Password protect sensitive data on your mobile devices

With the advent of third generation (3G) and now fourth generation (4G) mobile devices, a significant amount of personal and university data can be stored on these devices and, therefore, is available on the go! OIT Security and Compliance advises campus users to password protect their mobile devices (smartphones, personal digital assistants, laptops and tablet computers), especially those with university account access.

By setting an access password, you can prevent someone from using your device to access your e-mail and other sensitive data accessible through your linked university accounts. You can also prevent someone from sending an e-mail impersonating you from your e-mail account via the device. Once the password is set appropriately, anyone trying to use the device will be prompted to provide the code when powering on before initial use or prior to using the device after it has been left idle for a predetermined period of time.

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OIT News is an electronic news bulletin published monthly
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