This week, Computing Services will be performing several critical maintenance tasks that are required for our various systems. See below for details.

***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 12/17/20***

Beginning at 6:00PM, Computing Services will be:

–Performing an in-place upgrade to campus print servers. Printing services will be unavailable for approximately 3 hours (6:00-9:00PM).

Then beginning at 9:00PM, Computing Services will be:

–Installing Microsoft Windows patches to all Windows-based systems, including employee, lab and TEC Classroom computers, even ASU-owned computers being used by employees at home. These patches will force a reboot, so please log off and leave your computers on at the end of your work day Thursday to assist with installation. 

–Installing December Microsoft updates on all Windows production servers. Throughout this time, users will experience intermittent outages (5-15 minutes) and brief interruptions to network services as systems reboot.

***Additional maintenance continues throughout the week***

The upgrade of the Ceph backend storage cluster continues this week. Again, while no downtime is expected during this maintenance, we anticipate some decrease in performance and short outages are possible as servers restart.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at (719) 587-7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Adams State has become aware of several attempts to file unemployment claims with the State of Colorado for individuals who are still employed at the University. These are known as “impostor claims” and there has been an increase across the country in such activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Human Resources has employment verification systems in place for unemployment claims and will contact individuals if a false claim is received. If an employee becomes aware that someone is using their identity to collect unemployment benefits, they should report this immediately to Human Resources.

The State also recommends that the employee:

• File a police report. You can file a “counter report” with your local police department. As a victim, you have the right to file this report. Filing this report does not mean that the police will investigate, but there will be a record of it on file and you can get a copy of the report for your records.
• Report identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at: https://identitytheft.gov/. The FTC’s website includes helpful resources about how to recover from identity theft and how to protect your identity.
• Create a file where you can keep any records relating to this identity theft in one central place, in case you are notified of other fraud or breaches of your personal information.
• Check and monitor your credit reports at: http://www.annualcreditreport.com/. Keep in mind, if you have medical coverage with Anthem, you have access to credit monitoring and ID Theft protection. For more information, please visit the Benefits page on the HR website and click on “AllClear ID Protection – Anthem Members.”

Scammers rely on social engineering: In a typical phone scam, an employee will receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from the State of Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. The caller may state that the State has no record of employment and ask for the employee’s social security number so that they can receive unemployment benefits. 

No one from the State of Colorado nor Adams State (including the Human Resources office) will contact employees by phone to request personal or financial information. Any ASU employee who receives a call asking for a social security number or other personal information related to unemployment benefits should hang up immediately.

The Human Resources office is tracking unemployment fraud attempts. Employees who experience any of these problems are asked to send an email to Human Resources at hr@adams.edu or contact (719) 587-7990.

This week, Computing Services will be performing several critical maintenance tasks that are required for our various systems. See below for details.

***Computing Services Maintenance beginning Wednesday, 12/9 and continuing through next week***

Beginning after 12:00 noon today (Wednesday, 12/9) and continuing through next week, we will be upgrading the Ceph backend storage cluster. While no downtime is expected during this maintenance, we anticipate some decrease in performance as servers restart.

***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 12/10***

On Thursday evening, beginning at 9:00 PM, Computing Services will be installing December 2020 Microsoft patches/updates to our test systems for deployment in the near future. We anticipate no impact for client-facing systems.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at (719) 587-7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

***Computing Services Maintenance for Wednesday, 11/18/20***

Beginning at 6:00 PM this evening, and lasting approximately 2 hours, we will be updating the System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) environment, which pushes all Window updates, software updates, and new applications. During this time, we expect no impact to users.

***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 11/19/20***

Beginning at 9:00 PM Thursday evening, 11/19, Computing Services will be:

–Installing Microsoft Windows patches to all Windows-based systems, including employee, lab and TEC Classroom computers, even ASU-owned computers being used by employees at home. These patches will force a reboot, so please log off and leave your computers on at the end of your work day Thursday to assist with installation. 

–Installing November Microsoft updates on all Windows production servers. Throughout this time, users will experience intermittent outages (5-10 minutes) and brief interruptions to network services as systems reboot.

–Performing changes to the proxy servers and other back-end systems. Users can expect a brief period (approximately 15 minutes) of unavailability of most web services, including Banner 9, Self-Service, Web-Services, School Services, and DegreeWorks.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at (719) 587-7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Beginning at 8:30 PM tomorrow evening (Thursday, 11/12/2020), the Banner Production environment will be unavailable until approximately 7:00 AM Friday morning while Oracle PSU Quarter 3 updates are deployed. During this time, ALL Banner PROD services will be unavailable, including Banner 9, Self-Service, Web-Services, and School Services, etc.

Also Thursday evening, beginning at 9:00 PM, Computing Services will be installing November 2020 Microsoft patches/updates to our test systems for deployment in the near future. We anticipate no impact for client-facing systems.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at (719) 587-7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

As we close out National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we hope that the information and resources we have shared has been useful. While we covered just a few topics to assist you in reducing cybersecurity risks, there are many others to consider.

From using social media safely, employing passphrases to secure your accounts, and enabling two-factor or multi-factor authentication when available, we are each responsible for educating ourselves in ways we can practice good digital hygiene. The National Cyber Security Alliance (https://staysafeonline.org/) is always a great resource; check out these videos and this tip sheet from their Stop.Think.Connect. initiative for additional ideas on how to keep yourself safe online.

While Cybersecurity Awareness Month may be observed every October, we remind you to Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart. all year long. 

Computing Services is here to help you with cybersecurity and answer any questions you may have. Feel free to contact us at (719) 587-7741, computingservices@adams.edu, or stop by our Help Desk on the first floor of Nielsen Library.

Have a great day!

ASU Computing Services

Computing Services will be performing the following activities the evening of Thursday, 10/29/20:

• Beginning at 9:00 PM, installing updates to the campus GitLab system.
• Beginning at 11:00 PM, installing Oracle Quarter 3 PSU patches to the Banner Quality Assurance (QA) environment.

We anticipate no impact to client-facing systems from either of these maintenance activities.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at (719) 587-7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Good afternoon, Adams State Banner Community.

The 2020 Banner 2nd/3rd Quarter & Regulatory Updates were deployed to the production environment today, October 24th 2020. The Banner Admin, Banner Self-Service, Degree Works, Application Xtender, Axiom applications are available at this time. Touchnet is unavailable at this time and will be available at 7:00 PM this evening.

The details on the Banner modules updated are outlined below and are in the Banner Google Calendar:

Adams State University – Banner Updates Calendar

2020 Banner 2nd/3rd Quarter Updates:
 Banner Accounts Receivable 8.7,9.3.15.0.2,9.3.16.0.4
 Banner Admin Common 9.3.22.0.5
 Banner Application Navigator 3.3.1
 Banner Document Management System 8.7.4.1
 Banner Employee Self Service 8.18, 9.12
 Banner Event Publisher 9.4
 Banner Finance 9.3.16.0.4, 9.3.17.0.1
 Banner Financial Aid 8.38.1.4, 8.38.1.5, 8.38.1.6, 8.39, 8.39.0.1, 8.39.0.2, 8.39.0.3, 9.3.22.0.5, 9.3.22.1.2
 Banner General 8.12.2,9.3.17.1.1,9.3.18.0.4
 Banner Position Control 8.18, 9.3.13.0.2
 Banner HR and Payroll 8.18, 8.18.0.1, 8.18.1.1, 9.3.15.0.4, 9.3.16.0.1
 Banner Student 8.19.1, 8.19.2, 8.19.3, 8.20, 9.3.19.0.4, 9.3.20.0.2Banner DB Upgrade 9.20, 9.21
 Banner Communication Management 9.7, 9.7.1
 Banner Extensibility 9.7
 Banner Employee Self-Service 8.18, 9.12
 Banner Finance Self-Service 8.7.0.4, 9.3, 9.4
 Banner General Self-Service 9.4, 9.5, 9.6
 Banner Faculty Self-Service 9.11, 9.12
 Banner Student Self-Service 8.7.2.9
 Banner Web General 8.8.0.1

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding for the downtime to deploy the critical 2020 Banner Quarterly & Regulatory Updates to our production environment. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at 7741 or contact us via email at computin…@adams.edu

Did you know that over 90% of all cyberattacks begin with a phishing email?

What is phishing?

Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords. The information is then used to access important accounts and can result in identity theft and financial loss.

How do you prevent a phishing attack?

There are always signs that something’s not right, if you pay attention and educate yourself on what to look for. To help identify a possible phishing attempt, take a look at these Social Engineering Red Flags or check out this video for tips on how to avoid taking the bait.

If you’re unsure who an email is from, even if the details appear accurate, do not respond, and do not click on any links or attachments found in that email. Always avoid sending sensitive information via email.

The best piece of advice: When in doubt, throw it out.

Computing Services is here to help you with cybersecurity and answer any questions you may have. Feel free to contact us at (719) 587-7741, computingservices@adams.edu, or stop by our Help Desk on the first floor of Nielsen Library.

Have a great day!

ASU Computing Services

This week, Computing Services will be performing several critical maintenance tasks that are required for our various systems. See below for details.

***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 10/22***

Computing Services will be performing the following activities beginning at 9:00 PM this evening, Thursday, 10/22:

–Installing Microsoft Windows patches to all Windows-based systems, including employee, lab and TEC Classroom computers, even ASU-owned computers being used by employees at home. These patches will force a reboot, so please log off and leave your computers on at the end of your work day today to assist with installation.

–Installing October Microsoft updates on all Windows production servers. Throughout this time, users will experience intermittent outages (5-10 minutes) and brief interruptions to network services as systems reboot.

***Banner PROD Downtime for Saturday, 10/24***

The Banner production environment will be unavailable Saturday morning, 10/24, from approximately 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, MST, while updates for 2020 Quarters 2 and 3 are deployed to the PROD environment. During this time, ALL Banner services will be unavailable, which includes Banner 9, Self-Service, Web-Services, School Services, and DegreeWorks, etc.

Computing Services thanks you for your patience and understanding as we perform these critical maintenance activities. As always, if you have any questions, please call the ASU Computing Services Helpdesk at 7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,
Computing Services