Faculty

The data center firewall in the Computing Center must be upgraded to higher performing hardware and this will take place on the night of January 3 from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Upgrading a firewall makes services protected by the firewall unavailable while the hardware is replaced and the services brought back online.

Please note: If you have questions about Google Apps or e-mail in general, please contact the IT Service Center at help@colorado.edu or call 303-735-4357 (5-HELP from a campus phone). Information about the Service Center’s hours and location is online at http://www.colorado.edu/oit/service-center.

The IT ServiceCenter will operate with modified hours during the winter break from December 26 to January 6, as follows:

Update: The D2L upgrade, originally scheduled to start at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, January 2, was delayed while the vendor addressed technical issues. Those issues have been addressed and the upgrade has been rescheduled to start at noon, Wednesday, January 2 and conclude by 2 p.m. Thursday, January 3.

The campus has recently been targeted by malicious e-mails that appear to be attempts to steal usernames and passwords. One such phishing e-mail urges campus account owners to “visit the updated Outlook Web Access for information and instructions on how to access your email.” These e-mails are not authentic. If you receive one, do not click on the link in the email and log into what looks like the Exchange service. Delete the e-mail.Individuals who received this e-mail should simply delete the message.

The campus has recently been targeted by malicious e-mails that appear to be attempts to gain user information such as passwords. One such phishing e-mail is supposedly from CULink Webmail and urges campus account owners to “verify your account activity before you can continue using your account.” Another came from OWA Exchange and made similar requests of account owners. Individuals who received these e-mails should simply delete them.

A new service called “WebAccess” will help streamline the process for how students, faculty and staff log in to several of CU-Boulder’s Web-based systems. Very simply, WebAccess provides a standardized, secure way for users to log into selected campus systems that are available over the web and in the cloud.

WebAccess is being used for the campus’ Qualtrics online survey tool. The next system to use WebAccess will be Desire2Learn, the campus’ online learning environment.

How Does WebAccess Work?

The campus is being targeted by malicious phishing e-mails falsely claiming to be from the IT Support Centre. The e-mails urge campus account owners to reply and provide user IDs and passwords to avoid account deactivation. These e-mails are not authentic. If you receive one, do not reply or provide information. Delete the e-mail.

If you responded and sent information, please call IT Service Center during regular business hours at 303-735-4357 (5-HELP from a campus phone).

Following is a sample message:

The campus has recently been targeted by malicious e-mails that appear to be attempts to gain user information such as passwords. One such phishing e-mail is supposedly from Colorado Webmail Support and urges campus account owners to send their account information to avoid the account being closed. Individuals who received this e-mail should simply delete the message.

Microsoft has released its newest operating system, Windows 8, and it is now available for download at no cost to CU-Boulder faculty and staff (including student employees). As is the case with most new software releases, there are initially a number of incompatibilities with commonly used applications and this is also the case with Windows 8. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) recommends upgrading only when applications that you commonly use are supported and compatible, and you have verified that your hardware can support the new OS.

In recognition of Cyber Security awareness month this October, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will survey all CU-Boulder faculty and staff about information security awareness.

Input from faculty and staff will give OIT important feedback to help us enhance future security awareness campaigns and programs. Those who complete the survey by November 9 will be entered for a chance to receive one of several $10 gift cards to a local coffee shop.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could incorporate web conferences in your Desire2Learn course? Well, now you can. The Online Rooms tool in Desire2Learn leverages Adobe Connect to bring web conferencing capabilities into D2L.

On October 15, 2012, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) is launching a new survey process that will provide important feedback from faculty, staff and students. Shortly after receiving help from OIT, we will e-mail our clients a follow-up survey. The candid feedback we hope to receive will be critical in driving service improvements as part of OIT’s Business Performance Excellence initiative.

The campus has been notified that some students are being targeted by e-mails about fake job offers that are an attempt to steal money from students. Specifically, the e-mails attempt to lure students into sending money orders on behalf of their employer after the students receive and deposit checks. The checks are later discovered to be fake. However, when the money orders are received by the criminals, the student’s money has already been stolen.

What to Do With Suspicious or Phishing E-mail

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has received reports that several public e-mail services, such as Yahoo and AOL, are currently blocking the receipt of university e-mail containing @colorado.edu in the address.

This is an action often taken by public e-mail providers when they receive spam due to a phishing outbreak, such as the one that occurred over Labor Day weekend with university e-mail.