OIT News – April 2015

OIT News
Monthly news briefs, information and announcements
Office of Information Technology, NC State University
Issue 90, April 2015

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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: New email retention service coming soon
02: NC State Cyber Security Incident Response Program to secure the Pack
03: Third annual NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day Website Challenge starts today
04: Human Resources and Financial systems maintenance scheduled for April 26
05: NC State Help Desk and OIT Walk-in Center receive student advocacy award
06: Be Green IT! Celebrate Earth Day on April 22
07: New features available in Google Apps
08: Get the latest Google Apps and WordPress training
09: SAR training scheduled for May 6

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01: New email retention service coming soon
OIT will soon enable Google Vault email retention and e-Discovery service for all Google Apps @ NC State accounts, including student accounts. Vault will expand and replace the Postini services some campus users already have.

Vault will make it easier for all NC State employees to retain copies of all work-related electronic documents, including those of a non-transient nature, as required by the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. 132-1). See Records Retention.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO NOW
Keep
Avoid deleting any message that you might need again. With your unlimited email storage in Google Apps, you never have to delete anything and can keep it as long as you want.

Archive
Use the Gmail “Archive” button to remove messages from your Inbox and help to keep it tidy; all your messages will be stored in “All Mail.” To retrieve a message, you can search for it from your Inbox or select “All Mail” and search for it. See:

Organize
Consider using labels and filters to keep your Inbox clutter-free and find your mail more easily!

EMAIL RETENTION

  • Vault retains undeleted email indefinitely.
  • Vault retains deleted email for seven years from its send date, even after it was auto-removed from your Trash or you chose to “Delete forever.”

EMAIL RETRIEVAL

  • You can retrieve an email from Trash for about 25 days after it has been labeled as Trash, as long as you have not chosen to “Delete forever.”
  • Once Vault’s end-user interface is in place (shortly after we complete the transition to Vault), you will be able to retrieve from Vault:
    • any undeleted message indefinitely and
    • any deleted message for up to seven years after its send date, including one that you chose to “Delete forever” or that was auto-removed from your Trash after about 25 days.

HELPFUL TIPS

  • Use Gmail filters to ensure specific messages are delivered to your Inbox and not your Spam label. This is the alternative to Postini’s “Approved Sender” feature. See Using Filters.
  • Use the Report Spam button to remove real spam messages from your Inbox. This will train Gmail to identify them as such. However, be aware that some unwanted email is NOT spam.

To keep abreast of NC State’s transition to Google Vault, visit Central Email Retention Services regularly.

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02: NC State Cyber Security Incident Response Program to secure the Pack
Your server has been hacked! Now, what do you do? If you work with systems that store, process or transmit credit card data, Social Security numbers or invaluable research, OIT Security and Compliance has developed a two-part training session to help you secure sensitive data and fight against cyber attacks.

If you are a system administrator or technical staff who hasn’t attended one of these sessions, you should come to the Cyber Security Incident Response Training Overview on Wednesday, June 3 from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room 106 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. This will be an interactive session on how to detect if your server has been hacked and what to do next. This session will provide you with:

  • an overview of the NC State Cyber Security Incident Response Program
  • an introduction to Digital Forensics Incident Response
  • best practices
  • ways to identify potential threats/compromises

You will also be introduced to new procedures and tools that will help you:

  • understand cyber threats to your systems
  • develop a plan of action if a system is compromised

After you attend the overview and register your servers, Security and Compliance will help you develop a Cyber Security Incident Response Plan for your sensitive systems. This working session will include:

  • identification of security loopholes and potential threat vectors
  • containment, eradication and recovery steps in the event of a security compromise

Securing NC State requires the efforts of the entire Wolfpack community. Register today for the OIT Incident Response Training Overview.

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03: Third annual NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day Website Challenge starts today
The University IT Accessibility Office is once again sponsoring the NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) Challenge to encourage campus website owners and designers to make accessibility improvements to their websites. GADD is held annually “to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities.”

The contest, which runs today through Wednesday, May 20, includes two categories:

  • sites that improve their overall accessibility by the greatest percentage
  • sites that link at least their homepage to the Accessibility @ NC State University
    Website owners and designers are asked to link to this site so their users can easily find campus accessibility services and to follow the Office of Civil Rights recommendations.

Individuals who need help identifying and correcting accessibility issues can attend the following workshops and informal drop-in sessions:

  • Website Accessibility Tune-Ups (Lunch & Learn series)
    Thursday, April 23, noon to 1 p.m.
    Room 110, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    To register, visit Classmate.
  • Web Accessibility Testing and Techniques
    Thursday, April 23, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
    Room 110, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    To register, visit Classmate.
  • Co-Working Day Drop-in Session
    Friday, May 1, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
    Room 106, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    Registration is not required.
  • Web Accessibility Testing and Techniques
    Tuesday, May 5, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
    Room 108, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    To register, visit Classmate.
  • Website Accessibility Tune-Ups (Lunch & Learn series)
    Tuesday, May 5, noon to 1 p.m.
    Room 108, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    To register, visit Classmate.
  • Co-Working Day Drop-in Session
    Friday, May 8, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
    Room 106, Avent Ferry Technology Center
    Registration is not required.

The University IT Accessibility Office will post contest winners on the 2015 NC State Global Accessibility Awareness Day Website Challenge page on Thursday, May 21.

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04: Human Resources and Financial systems maintenance scheduled for April 26
OIT will apply vendor-released maintenance to the Human Resources and Financial systems on Sunday, April 26 from 6 a.m. to approximately 10 p.m.

Services that will be unavailable in the Financial System include, but are not limited to:

  • Travel
  • Purchase Card
  • Vouchers
  • Journals
  • MarketPlace orders

Services that will be unavailable in the Human Resources System include, but are not limited to Employee Self Services (e.g., paychecks and Form W-2 ). Campus users will be able to enter work time into the Kaba Timekeeping System but will not be able to view timesheets.

For updates, see the SysNews announcement.

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05: NC State Help Desk and OIT Walk-in Center receive student advocacy award
The NC State Help Desk and the OIT Walk-in Center recently received the First Year College’s First Year Student Advocacy Award.

The award recognizes both for “providing students with the help, support and resources relative to technology and for the countless hours spent on understanding students’ needs and developing solutions that help them thrive.”

The award is given annually to an NC State office that has been an effective advocate for first-year students.

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06: Be Green IT! Celebrate Earth Day on April 22
Be “Green” IT! This means you think consciously about how to conserve energy and properly use and discard university and personal IT-related resources.

On Earth Day, April 22, and every day, OIT encourages all campus users to:

  • conserve and protect IT resources
  • recycle electronics
  • reduce the university’s and the world’s carbon footprint

Join us during this year’s Earth Fair, sponsored by the NC State Office of Sustainability on Wednesday, April 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Brickyard. Rain date is Thursday, April 23.

During the four-hour Earth Fair, OIT will engage fair-goers in three interactive Green IT activities about IT energy conservation, recyclable electronics and proper disposal of electronics. There will be prizes and refreshments.

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07: New features available in Google Apps
Google continues to offer new product features for Google Apps for Education users. They include:

  • New Google Drive
    Google rolled out a new interface for Google Drive this month. If you haven’t already, experience the new Drive by following these steps:

    • Open your Google Drive account.
    • Select Settings.
    • Choose Experience the New Drive.

For a detailed tour of what’s new in Google Drive, visit the Google+ event page to view a recorded webinar hosted by the Google Service Team.

  • New URL format for Docs editors
    Google is changing the URL structure of Docs editors to use the new /u/ domain format for Google Apps customers. Currently, if you are signed in to multiple Google accounts and open a Docs editor file, you may be asked to select a specific account to open the file. With the domain format change, the Docs editors will automatically select the first account with view access. All URLs with the current /a/ domain format will continue to work after this change. For more information, see Google Docs editors URL format change.

  • Conditional Formatting improvements in Sheets
    In the newly designed editing pane of Sheets, you can now:

    • add gradient conditional formatting rules
    • choose from more style options
    • import or export color scale conditional formatting
  • New Gmail iOS
    With the new version of Gmail iOS, you can:
    • Email files from other apps
      Attach your photos and other documents to a Gmail message from various apps including iPhoto and Chrome.
    • Easily open attachments
      The new attachment viewer allows you to open files in the app of your choice.
    • Take quick actions on notifications
      Reply to or archive new messages from your lock or notifications screen without opening an app.

For more details on Google’s new enhancements, check out the March edition of Google Apps What’s New. You can also follow the Google Service Team on:

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08: Get the latest Google Apps and WordPress training
OIT’s upcoming training courses include:

  • Gmail: Advanced Tools, Tips & Tricks will be offered on Wednesday, April 22 from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. If you’re comfortable with the basics of Gmail and are ready to take it to the next level, this more advanced hands-on workshop is for you. You will learn more about creating labels, filters and canned responses, scheduling Google Calendar Events, and using Google Drive through Gmail, along with any planned or newly released Google features. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Create and Collaborate with Google Drive will be offered on Tuesday, April 28 from 10 a.m. to noon in ITTC Lab 2 of D.H. Hill Library. In this hands-on workshop, you will learn everything you need to know to get started using Google Docs/Drive at NC State. You will learn how to use Drive in a collaborative environment, including editing a file simultaneously with other people, securing a document through file sharing permissions, and creating files for use by a group of colleagues or friends. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Basics of WordPress will be offered on Wednesday, April 29 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. Learn everything you need to know to get started using WordPress here at NC State. The workshop will cover topics including setup, configuration, themes, plug-ins, settings, options, and management of WordPress. To register, visit Classmate.
  • Introduction to Google Sites will be offered on Thursday, April 30 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. In this class, students will learn how to create a website using Google Sites, control access and embed Docs, videos, images, and links. The workshop will also cover some customization and basic Web design principles.
  • Introduction to Google+ will be offered on Tuesday, May 12 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. This class will provide you with an overview of Google+ along with instructions for creating your own Google+ page.
  • Gmail: Beyond the Basics will be offered on Wednesday, May 13, from 9 a.m. to noon in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. This workshop will provide an in-depth overview of Gmail features, including Labels, Search tools, Contacts management, Chat, Tasks, Settings, Labs, and new features. If time permits, a brief introduction to Google Hangouts will be provided.
  • Introduction to Google Hangouts – Laptop/Desktop Application will be offered on Tuesday, May 19 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Room 110 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. This is a fun and interactive workshop to learn about the emergence of Google Hangouts, a free Web conferencing tool that allows easy communication on campus or across the globe via video, audio and text messaging. Learn how to use the Hangouts platform and its many helpful features. You are encouraged to bring a laptop to the session.

For other available training sessions, visit Classmate Scheduled Workshops. If you are interested in custom software training, please complete the Custom Training Form. Email all training questions to classreg@ncsu.edu.

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09: SAR training scheduled for May 6
Security Access Request (SAR) training for campus requestors and approvers of access to secured university data will be held Wednesday, May 6 from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Room 108 of the Avent Ferry Technology Center. Visit Classmate to register for training.

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