Security
and
Internet
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Security
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E-MAIL UPDATE
Central e-mail has made the first step towards maintaining one e-mail account per person. Now a second account is no longer created if a person is both staff and a student.

SPAM UPDATE
Spam controls are working hard! Approximately 45 percent of all incoming e-mail (from outside the umn.edu domain) is currently being blocked.

SECURITY NEWS: WORM DAMAGE
The SQL Slammer worm hit an estimated 120,000 addresses on the Internet, including some computers on the University network at about 11:30 Friday night, 01/24/03. The biggest effect of the worm was an excessive amount of traffic in certain parts of the U infrastructure that slowed the network to a crawl. The worm took advantage of a bug in Microsoft's SQL Server software (for which a patch was issued in July, 2002). Once infected, hosts attempted to pass along the infection via the network.

WE'RE SCANNING THE NETWORK
OIT Security and Assurance is scanning the network to identify any vulnerable systems (using a newly released tool) and will attempt to notify owners of problematic machines. To find the vulnerability yourself, you can point at the following tool: Linkname: ScanSlam - SQLslammer vulnerability scanner. URL: http://www.robertgraham.com/tools/scanslam/. General information about the scanning processes is here: http://www.umn.edu/oit/security/scanprocess.shtml.

YOU CAN REQUEST A SCAN
If one of your servers is running MS-SQL and you would like OIT Security to do a vulnerability scan, send a request to oit.security@umn.edu.

MAINTAIN CURRENT PATCHES
The SQL Slammer worm damage is yet another reminder to maintain current patches, and to turn off computers not in use overnight (most computers). The Microsoft home page has links to security, support information, and news: http://www.microsoft.com. OIT Security: http://www.umn.edu/oit/security/.

Network and
Telecommunication
Services

NTS home

SURVEY: HOW DO YOU USE THE NETWORK?
In anticipation of a Data Network Upgrade Project at the U of M, a web-based survey is now available to help us better understand how the University community uses the network today and plans to use it in the future. This survey is available to all U students, staff, and faculty. Look for it at http://www.umn.edu/nts under Data Network Survey. Questions can be sent to ngn-survey@umn.edu.

UPDATE: APPLETALK/IPX CHANGE
The AppleTalk IPX/Novell upgrade to IP project is moving forward with the St. Paul Campus, starting in Feb. 2003 with Coffey Hall. The College of Education is also scheduled for February for the following buildings: Burton, Pattee, Elliot, Wulling, Peik, ICD, VoTech, Cooke. Soon a campus building list will be available for the proposed upgrade dates. For more info, see: http://www.umn.edu/oit/appleipx/.

COMING: NEW PHONE FEATURES
New telephone features promised with the recent system upgrade are being tested. We expect new features to be introduced in Spring, 2003. Look for Anonymous Caller Rejection, Remote Call Forwarding, Caller ID block, and more.

WERE YOU MISSED DURING THE UPGRADE?
If we missed replacing your telephones during the upgrade project, we want to know! Send the telephone numbers to us at telephoneupgrade@nts.umn.edu.

AUDITS: YOURS AND OURS
NTS is auditing all the live and active etherjacks in all buildings throughout the campus. We recommend that all departments also audit their monthly bills and send any changes and corrections to us at billing@nts.umn.edu or call ONE-HELP at 301-4357 and select option 3.

Academic and
Distributed
Computing
Services

ADCS home

WIRELESS ACCESS IN COFFMAN
Most of the building is covered. However, due to delays in network and electrical installation, at the end of January wireless access on the first floor and in the basement was not fully deployed. We hope to have complete access very early in February. More wireless info at: http://lighthouse.micro.umn.edu/kiosk/wireless/.

COFFMAN STUDENT LAB
The student Computer Lab in Coffman is open for business: http://www2.publabs.umn.edu/cgi-bin/eastbank/locations/cmub060.cgi. We're still working out some equipment, electrical, data, and hours details. Eventually the Coffman lab will have more equipment and longer hours. http://www.coffman.umn.edu/renovation.

AT&T BROADBAND CHANGES
In February, 2003 AT&T is changing pricing for its broadband customers who do not have cable TV through AT&T. U of M customers, however, who signed up through Techmart's "High Speed Access" option are not going to be effected by the change until a later, undetermined date. When known, U of M pricing details will be available on the Techmart Website: http://techmart.umn.edu.

FEB. 14: TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY FORUM MEETING
Dan Shaw and Hope Johnson will lead a discussion about using images to teach at the next meeting of the Digital Media Center's forum for those interested in using technology for teaching: Friday, FEB. 14, noon-1:30 p.m., Fireplace Room, McNeal Hall, St. Paul.

2ND REMINDERS: FEB EVENTS
Faculty Fellowship Proposals due FEB. 17, http://dmc.umn.edu/fellowship/fellowship.shtml | TEL Grant Program Proposals due FEB. 24, http://dmc.umn.edu/grants/grants.shtml | TA Web Certification Program (a 30-hours series) starts FEB. 18 and APRIL 2, http://dmc.umn.edu/ta-web.shtml | Marte Hult will discuss her project to develop a new online 4-semester Norwegian language course: FEB. 19, noon-1:30, 165 Peik Hall, http://dmc.umn.edu/services/seminar-series.shtml.

WEB DESIGN USING FLASH
Need to draw more attention to your Website? Adding an automatic slide show of images that represent your research, services, or expertise is one way to engage visitors. SCS will help you enhance your Website with Macromedia's Flash as we did for the new look at the Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology Ph.D. Program site: http://www.micab.umn.edu | http://www.umn.edu/adcs/scs.

IMPROVED CBT SERVICE
We've improved the Computer Based Training (CBT) service we offer to U students, staff, and faculty. CBT provides easy access to self-paced online training. [MORE]