OIT News – September 2012

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 59, September 2012
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Follow OIT on Twitter @NCStateOIT
For up-to-the-minute reports on OIT systems, see SysNews
For help with computing problems, contact the NC State Help Desk
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01: Cyber Security Awareness Month: U R Cyber Security
02: HR 9.1 and SIS 9.0 upgrades begin Sept. 26
03: Ready to request a free WordPress blog?
04: Hosted Drupal and WordPress website services now available
05: 10 to 7 year change in central email archive
06: Web Registry Service Directory now available
07: Google Docs changing to Google Drive
08: Google Calendar: Did you know?
09: Upcoming Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
10: SAR training scheduled for Oct. 10
11: Install auto-update feature in players and viewers
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01: Cyber Security Awareness Month: U R Cyber Security
“U R Cyber Security” is NC State University’s theme for National Cyber Security Awareness Month. October 2012 marks the ninth annual event sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Alliance “to increase the awareness and prevention of online security problems.”

Despite technological advances in the information security industry, human error is considered the greatest IT security threat. This year, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will sponsor its annual security awareness event, “U R Cyber Security,” to show campus users that they play an important role in campus IT security and in protecting each others’ digital lives.

To kick off Cyber Security Awareness Month, security expert Tim Gurganus of OIT Security and Compliance will present “Reducing Risks from Cyber Attacks” on Tuesday, Oct. 2 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Washington Sankofa Room (Room 126) of the Witherspoon Student Center. Learn how today’s cybercriminals target your computer, identity and money, and get practical advice on how to combat any threats that come your way. Gurganus will give a brief history of malware on campus, the anatomy of cyber attacks, and the top five actions you can take to make your PC, smartphone and online experience safer. ­To register, visit Classmate.

There will be many Cyber Security activities offered throughout the month of October. For more information on this year’s events, please see the Cyber Security Awareness Month website. Refreshments will be served at all events, and participants will have the opportunity at each event to register to win several great prizes, including an Apple iPad, a Kindle Fire and Trend Micro antivirus licenses. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, Oct. 31.

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02: HR 9.1 and SIS 9.0 upgrades begin Sept. 26
On Monday, Oct. 1, the campus community will see a new, improved Human Resources (HR) System as well as a new Student Information System (SIS). Both are being upgraded to maintain vendor support.

Human Resources

  • Human Resources and OIT Enterprise Application Systems (EAS) will upgrade the current HR system to version 9.1, which will provide a new workflow-driven employee hiring process. New self-service features will include multiple account options for direct deposit of paychecks and paycheck statement printing enhancements. Details on these and other new features as well as help and training information can be found in the Special 9.1 Upgrade Edition of HR News & Helpful Hints.


Student Information System

  • At the same time, Registration and Records, the Graduate School and OIT EAS will also be upgrading SIS to version 9.0 . The upgrade  includes enhanced enrollment features that streamline the registration process and an advisor dashboard. In addition, OIT is partnering with the College of Engineering Web Development Team and other campus IT units to provide mobile support for some SIS functions, such as class schedule and grade tracking. For more upgrade details, visit the SIS Upgrade: What does this mean for me? website.

HR 9.1 and SIS 9.0 upgrade schedule

The upgrade schedule is as follows:

  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: Access to the HR 9.0 Production System is removed.
  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: HR 9.0 Reporting System remains active.
  • 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26: Access to SIS 8.9 is read-only. Transactions will not be processed.
  • Midnight (approximately), Friday, Sept. 28: SIS 8.9 read-only access ends.
  • Midnight (approximately), Sunday, Sept. 30: HR 9.0 Reporting System access ends.
  • 7 a.m. (target) Monday, Oct. 1: HR 9.1 System and SIS 9.0 production systems are up.

SAR

  • Security Access Request (SAR) has been modified to accommodate the changes in the HR and SIS systems. SAR provides security access to both systems for campus users. All SAR requests for the HR and Student systems must be approved by 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 26. No new requests for those applications can be entered until Monday, Oct. 1.

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03: Ready to request a free WordPress blog?
OIT Design, Education and Outreach has launched a website and blog hosting service for temporary, personal or project sites that do not require a customized URL.

The WordPress Blog Service will allow users to create their own blog with a generic URL, sitename.wordpress.ncsu.edu. These sites have a limited number of plug-ins and themes available, but are free to use and can be created for immediate use. For more information, view the WordPress Production Service Web page.

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04: Hosted Drupal and WordPress website services now available
OIT Design, Education and Outreach has launched two new services — Hosted Drupal Websites and Hosted WordPress Websites — to make it easier for users and units to maintain high-quality university websites.

NC State students, faculty and staff can now request their own website in either Drupal or WordPress for $240 per site annually. Each site will have its own URL and will be hosted by OIT Design in a central environment; site owners do not have to purchase separate hosting space. OIT will manage all back-end administrative aspects of the service, including backups, the initial configuration and updates. Site owners will manage the front-end configuration of their website and their own content.

Both WordPress and Drupal offerings include branded, accessible themes, as well as plug-ins and modules to extend the features of the Drupal and WordPress services.

For more information, visit Drupal and WordPress services. After learning more about each service, visit Web Registry to request a site.

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05: 10 to 7 year change in central email archive
Effective Sept. 1, the central archive duration for all university email changed from 10 years to seven years, as approved by the NC State Executive Officers in consultation with the Office of General Counsel.

All mail automatically stored by Postini — NC State’s central email archiving system — before Sept. 1 will be retained for 10 years. All email archived on or after Sept. 1 will be retained for seven years.

No action is necessary by you unless you have an external requirement (e.g., required by a grant) to archive project-associated emails for longer than seven years. If you do, then you will need to archive project-associated emails dated Sept. 1, 2012 or later, so that you can retrieve them, if needed, after they are deleted from the seven-year central archive.

For more information about Postini and university records retention and personal email sent and received on university computers, visit Central Email Archiving and Retention Services or Office of General Counsel’s Legal FAQs.

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06: Web Registry Service Directory now available
A Service Directory has been added to Web Registry that allows users to search for all approved and active services within the registry. Web Registry allows NC State users to request and manage services such as Google calendar resources, generic accounts and groups, and Drupal websites to name a few.

This Service Directory will help users find out what services are already available before creating new ones and who is responsible for those services on campus. For example, users will be able to use search terms to find all of the services that have “google” in their name. Users who are responsible for the technology of their group, unit, department and/or college will also be able to use the Service Directory to find all items that are owned by one of their users, or that are owned by a department. This will help users more quickly obtain services and reduce duplicate requests.

For more details about the feature, view the Service Directory for Web Registry Sysnews announcement.

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07: Google Docs changing to Google Drive
Last spring, Google announced Google Drive, a new member of the Google Apps suite that was created to replace and enhance Google Docs. The Google Drive interface looks similar to the Google Docs Web interface with a number of improvements, including new ways to organize your files and enhanced search functionality.

Google has informed OIT that within the next several weeks, Google Drive will become the default Web interface. If you have already opted-in to Google Drive, you won’t be affected by this change. If you haven’t already opted-in to Google Drive, you will know the change has taken place when you see Drive instead of Docs in the Google Apps @ NC State Gmail toolbar. This is the toolbar at the top of your Gmail screen, which also contains: Search, Images, Mail, Calendar, Sites, Groups, Contacts, Mobile and More.

For more information and help with Google Drive, including how it relates to Docs, visit Google Drive and Docs.

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08: Google Calendar: Did you know?
You can set up your Google calendar so that when you view it, you also see the events on the university’s academic calendar, such as Fall break – no classes and Last day of classes. To learn how, visit Registration and Records’ The NC State Academic Google Calendar for instructions.

Google also has expanded its event color code palette from nine colors to 24, which allows you to more clearly delineate entries within a calendar and in a multiple-calendar view. Make your university holiday calendar events yellow, your recurring weekly team meeting blue, and your staff meeting red, brown, purple, or aqua! For more information, see Updates to the look of Google Calendar.

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09: Upcoming Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training
OIT will offer two Google Apps @ NC State training sessions during the month of September:

  • Google Apps @ NC State mail and calendar training will be offered on Tuesday, Sept. 18 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs). This hands-on workshop will cover everything you need to know to get started with Gmail and Google Calendar, including an overview of the apps and helpful resources. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

  • Google Apps @ NC State “Beyond the Basics: Calendar” will be offered on Thursday, Sept. 27 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center (OIT Training Labs). This hands-on workshop will focus on some of the more intermediate features of Google Calendar, including appointment slots, event attachments, maps and directions, sharing and embedding calendars, labs features, quick add, search options, mobile notifications, and more. For more information and to register, visit Classmate.

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10: SAR training scheduled for Oct. 10
Monthly Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held on Wednesday, Oct.10 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in the ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. Please visit Classmate to view available classes and to sign up for training.

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11: Install auto-update feature in players and viewers
Using the campus Trend Micro Officescan antivirus server logs, OIT Information Security Services began studying this summer the different types of malware encountered on campus. Once the most common virus infections were identified, an analysis was done to determine how the malware actually infected campus PCs.

The analysis showed that hackers exploited bugs in out-of-date versions of Java, Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player  which are also plug-ins to popular Web browsers —  to cause at least 50 percent of the virus infections of compromised computers on campus.

As a result of their widespread use and their “auto execute” behavior, these applications are most often used by hackers to install malware on Windows PCs when the user visits a malicious or infected website.  When a user goes to an infected Web page, the player for the content runs without the user having to do anything else, such as click play, start, yes, or approve.

To reduce the risk of getting a virus on your PC or laptop both now and in the future, OIT recommends that you enable the “auto-update” feature, which is now included in popular players and viewers, to get future updates to Java, Flash and Adobe Reader installed automatically. Users should also run up-to-date antivirus software and regularly patch their computer operating system to further reduce risks.

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