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

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

If you’ve been following recent election coverage, you may have heard about how Microsoft took action to disrupt a massive hacking operation that distributes ransomware, which the US government and independent experts have warned is one of the largest threats to the upcoming elections.

What is ransomware? According to the National Cybersecurity Alliance (https://staysafeonline.org/), ransomware is a type of malware that accesses a victim’s files, locks and encrypts them and then demands the victim to pay a ransom to get them back. It’s like the “digital kidnapping” of valuable data – from personal photos and memories to client information, financial records and intellectual property – and any individual or organization could be a potential target.

So, how do you avoid ransomware and prevent an attack? Suggestions include keeping a clean machine (mentioned in our last post), protecting yourself with security software, and backing up your data. For more tips, additional resources, and advice for what to do if you’re faced with a ransomware attack, check out this tip sheet: Ransomware 101. 

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 rest of the week!

ASU Computing Services

Beginning at 9:00 PM tomorrow evening (Thursday, 10/15/2020), Computing Services will be installing October 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 7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,
Computing Services

We all make mistakes – and cybercriminals know this. One big one? Not keeping your software up-to-date. 

Companies put out software patches for a lot of reasons, but a main one is to patch security holes. If you’re not updating, you’re not protected. So do a quick scan of all of your devices – computer, tablets, phones, routers, other connected devices – and make sure they’re running on the latest version of their software. Having the most up-to-date mobile security software, web browser, operating system and apps is the best defense against viruses, malware and other online threats.

Want to make your life easier? Turn on automatic updates so that you don’t have to think about it, and set your security software to run regular scans.

For more tips on how to keep a clean machine, check out this article from Stop.Think.Connect. (https://stopthinkconnect.org/), the global online safety awareness campaign: Keep a Clean Machine.

**Remember: If you connect it, protect it.**

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

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a global effort to help everyone stay protected whenever and however you connect. The overarching theme for this year’s campaign is: Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.

The cybersecurity and digital privacy of our students and employees is important and Adams State is proud to support this safety and education initiative. Throughout the month, we’ll share some tips and resources to help you protect yourself and the university while online.

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 rest of the week!

ASU Computing Services

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

***Computing Services Maintenance for Wednesday, 9/23***

Beginning at 12:00 PM on Wednesday, we will be restarting the proxy server as we install a new certificate. We expect minimal, if any, impact and downtime to users as this maintenance activity is performed. 

***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 9/24***

Beginning at 9:00 PM on Thursday, we will be restarting the master LDAP server and moving PDUs. We expect no impact to customers while we perform 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 7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Computing Services will be performing several maintenance activities beginning at 9:00 PM tonight, Thursday, 9/17/20:

–Installing September 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 September 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.

–Performing updates to the campus LDAP systems. Although brief reboots will be required, there will be minimal interruptions to campus services as we perform 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 7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Computing Services will be performing several maintenance activities beginning at 9:00 PM tomorrow, Thursday, 9/10/20:

–Installing Microsoft Windows updates 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 on Thursday to assist with these updates.

–Installing September 2020 Microsoft patches/updates to the test system, for possible deployment next week. We anticipate no impact for client-facing systems.

–Performing maintenance on several campus systems, including campus blogs, events, how-to and cswiki servers, mail, web database, and the campus LDAP systems. Although brief reboots will be required, there will be minimal interruptions to campus services as we perform 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 7741 or contact us via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Have a great day,
Computing Services

Beginning at 9:00 PM this evening, Computing Services will be making the following updates to a couple of campus backend systems:

–Installing security updates to the campus system GitLab. We anticipate no impact for client-facing systems.

–Adding TLS encryption to the campus telephone system. While we expect no outages, this update may cause brief reboots, lasting less than 5 minutes.

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.

Good morning, Adams State Banner Community.

This morning we just received an urgent notice from Ellucian to immediately install the Banner 2020 Quarter 3 Updates which contain mandatory Security Patches to the Self-Service Banner Applications. This means we will need to escalate the installation of the Quarter 3 (Q3) Banner Updates to the Banner DEVL/QA/PROD environments. Also the Quarter 2 (Q2) & Quarter 3 (Q3) Banner updates will be deployed to PROD at the same time after being verified in the QA environment. We are in the process of starting the updates and determining the new schedule for the Q2/Q3 updates to be deployed to PROD.

The immediate Banner Update schedule:

DEVL: 28-Aug-20, start install and deploy the Q3 & Security updates
QA: 03-Sep-20, start install and deploy the Q3 & Security updates
PROD: TBD, install and deploy Q2/Q3 updates ASAP after Census date

Given the surprise and urgent nature of these mandatory Security updates, any testing on the Q2 updates can be halted at this time. The verification of the Banner updates can be resumed once the Q3 updates are available in QA. The campus will be updated by an email post to this BUGs Google Group thread.

Computing Services thanks you for your assistance performing the critical verification of the 2020 Banner 2nd & 3rd Quarter Updates with Security Patches. 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

Have a great day,

Computing Services

Important Notice_ Security Updates in Banner Self-Service