***Banner Downtime and Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 11/7/19***

The Banner production environment will be unavailable Thursday evening from 9:00 PM MST to early morning Friday, while Oracle PSU Quarter 3 updates are deployed to the PROD environment. During this time, ALL Banner services will be inaccessible, 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

As we close out National Cybersecurity Awareness Month on this sunny Halloween, we hope that some of the tips we have shared have been useful. The more you know, the more you are prepared for the monsters, zombies, and mummies that are out there. Whether you’re on your phone, tablet, or computer, remember to Own IT. Protect IT. Secure IT. from things that go bump in the night or lurk in the dark web.

For some cybersecurity horror stories, check out this list of bone-chilling tales from our friends at Panda Security: Halloween Cybersecurity Horror Stories. Or, if you prefer your stories more on the cheesy side, this quick video from our colleagues at the University of Rochester has additional tips to stay safe: “The Top Ten” Movie Trailer.

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 offices in the Computing Services building.

Have a great Halloween!
ASU Computing Services

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It’s essential to take proactive measures to enhance cybersecurity at home, at work, and when you’re out and about. In previous weeks, we addressed how to best own and secure your personal information. Now, we need to safeguard all of that invaluable data, so here are some tips to help you “Protect IT.”

Keep a Clean Machine:

• Keep software current – 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, so keep your software updated to the latest version available. Turn on automatic updates so that you don’t have to think about it, and set your security software to run regular scans. If prompted to update your device, don’t hesitate—do it immediately.

• Delete when done – Many of us download apps for specific purposes, such as planning vacations, and no longer need them afterwards, or we may have previously downloaded apps that are longer useful or interesting to us. It’s a good security practice to delete all apps you no longer use.

Protect Your Personal Information:

• Secure your devices – Use strong passphrases, passcodes, or other features such as touch identification to lock your devices. Securing your device can help protect your information if your device is lost or stolen and keep prying eyes out.

• Now you see me, now you don’t – Some stores and other locations look for devices with WiFi or Bluetooth turned on to track your movements while you are within range. Disable WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use.

For more ideas to help you Protect IT, check out these 5 Steps to Protecting Your Digital Home from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (https://www.cisa.gov/).

**Remember: if you connect, you must protect.**

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 offices in the Computing Services building.

Have a great day!
ASU Computing Services

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!
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***Computing Services Maintenance for Thursday, 10/17/19***

Beginning at 9:00 PM, Computing Services will be installing Microsoft patches to campus computers. Employees are encouraged to log off but leave their computers on when leaving work tomorrow to assist in the installation of these patches.

In addition, beginning at 9:30 PM and lasting roughly 1 hour, we will be installing updates to the Docker EE cluster. During this time, Banner web services will restart, possibly multiple times.

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

This week’s cybersecurity focus is to “Secure IT.” by educating yourself about phishing. The simple definition of phishing is social engineering using digital methods for malicious purposes. The definition is fluid due to constantly changing technologies, but some examples include:

• Malicious Email – It can look like it comes from a financial institution, an e-commerce site, a government agency or any other service or business. It often urges you to act quickly, because your account has been compromised, your order cannot be fulfilled, or there is another urgent matter to address.

• Spear Phishing – Spear phishing involves highly specialized attacks against specific targets or small groups of targets to collect information or gain access to systems. A recent example here on campus was a targeted email to students from a purported ASU alum regarding a (fake) job opportunity for dog care.

• Imposter Scams – Gift cards are a great way to give a gift. But did you know they are also a scammer’s favorite way to steal money? Gift cards and reloading of cards is the #1 payment method for imposter scams. This scam is so widespread that the Federal Trade Commission set up a webpage to address the issue: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/10/scammers-demand-gift-cards.

• Spam & Phishing on Social Networks – Spam, phishing and other scams aren’t limited to just email. They’re also prevalent on social networking sites. The same rules apply on social networks: When in doubt, throw it out. This rule applies to links in online ads, status updates, tweets and other posts.

An attack can have devastating results. For individuals, this includes unauthorized purchases, the stealing of funds, or identify theft. For corporate and government networks, phishing is often used to gain a foothold as part of a larger attack.

Criminals are always looking for ways to hook you with a new phishing scam, so play hard to get. For some simple tips to Secure IT., check out this flyer from our friends at the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies: How to spot and avoid phish.

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 offices in the Computing Services building.

Have a great day!
ASU Computing Services

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!
www.facebook.com/ASUComputingServices

This week’s cybersecurity focus is to “Own IT.” by managing your privacy.

Your devices — smartphones, laptops, and wearables — make it easy to connect to the world around you, but they can also pack a lot of info about you and your friends and family, such as your contacts, photos, videos, locations and health and financial data. Here are a couple of tips to help manage your privacy in an always-on world:

• Think before you app: Information about you, such as the games you like to play, your contacts list, where you shop and your location, has value, just like money. Be thoughtful about who gets that information and how it’s collected through apps. Remember, personal information is like money. Value it. Protect it.

Have a great day!
ASU Computing Services

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As the fall semester presses on, I’m writing to remind you of the risks involved with illegally downloading and/or sharing of copyrighted music, movies, games and software over the Internet. Unauthorized obtaining, sharing or offering such copyrighted material is illegal and in violation of U.S. copyright law. If caught, you may face severe civil and criminal penalties, including prison and monetary damages. Anyone found to have infringed a copyrighted work may be liable for statutory damages of up to $30,000 for each work and, if found to be willful, that amount may be increased up to $150,000 for each work infringed. Movie and recording companies actively monitor the Internet to identify individuals who are illegally downloading and/or sharing movies and music via peer-to-peer networks.

ASU fully complies with Federal law and takes prompt action when notified that one of its students may be illegally downloading and/or sharing copyrighted material. University Policy 500-008, Unauthorized Downloading and File Sharing of Copyrighted Digital Materials, is located on the ASU Computing Services Website in the Policies section, at https://www.adams.edu/administration/computing/. If caught, ASU penalties could include loss of access to the campus computer network, disciplinary action and in extreme cases, expulsion from the University.

You may think that the large movie or recording companies won’t bother prosecuting a single university student downloading or sharing copyrighted material. Think again. Organizations such as the Recording Industry Association of America are serious about protecting their copyrighted material. In 2009, a Boston University graduate student was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and distributing 30 songs. This comes out to $22,500, per incident, of copyright infringement. There are a number of online sources that provide legal alternatives for downloading or otherwise acquiring copyrighted material. A listing of many of these sites can be found at: http://www.educause.edu/legalcontent.

If you have specific questions regarding ASU’s Unauthorized Downloading and File Sharing Policy please contact the ASU Computing Services Help Desk at 587-7741 or via email at computingservices@adams.edu.

Thanks and have a great rest of the semester!

October is upon us — the season of pumpkin spice lattes, fall foliage, and Halloween. Did you also know that October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month? That means it’s time to learn about some easy steps you can take to be safer and more secure online.

Held every October, NCSAM 2019’s theme is: Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT., emphasizing proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity practices.

Own It.

• Never click and tell: staying safe on social media
• Update privacy settings
• Keep tabs on your apps: best practices for device applications

Secure IT.

• Shake up your passphrase protocol: create strong, unique passphrases
• Double your login protection: turn on multi-factor authentication
• Shop safe online
• Play hard to get with strangers: how to spot and avoid phish

Protect IT.

• If you connect, you must protect: updating to the latest security software, web browser and operating systems
• Stay protected while connected: wi-fi safety
• If you collect it, protect it: keeping customer/consumer data and information safe

Throughout the month, we’ll provide some videos, other resources, and share some tips to encourage personal accountability and proactive behavior to help protect yourself and the university 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 offices in the Computing Services building.

Thanks!
ASU Computing Services

Don’t forget to like us on Facebook!
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***Maintenance Activities for Thursday, 9/26/19***

Beginning at 9:00 PM, campus PCs will receive updates to Mozilla Firefox ESR and Google Chrome Enterprise. Employees are encouraged to log off, but leave their computers on when leaving work. This will assist the installation of these updates and minimize any impact.

Also beginning at 9:00 PM, Computing Services will be performing maintenance on several campus systems, including the campus blogs, events, how-to and cswiki servers, web database, freeradius, and the campus LDAP systems. There will be minimal interruptions to campus services as we perform these maintenance activities.

***Maintenance Activities for Friday, 9/27/19 through Saturday, 9/28/19***

Beginning at 9:00 PM on Friday, 9/27 and lasting through Saturday morning, Computing Services will be performing maintenance on all Windows servers and SQL servers. During this time, the following programs and services may be inaccessible and/or may reboot: TutorTrack, Axiom (may experience delays in uploads into Banner), PrintShop, AppXtender, Print Services (briefly), Donor II, and Camera Server reboots.

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 critical maintenance tasks that are required for our various systems. See below for details:

***Banner Downtime and Maintenance for Thursday, 9/12/19***

The Banner production environment will be unavailable Thursday evening from 8:30 PM to approximately 2:30 AM on Friday, while the Oracle PSU updates are deployed to the production environment. During this time, ALL Banner services will be inaccessible, which includes Banner 9, Self-Service, Web-Services, School Services, and DegreeWorks, etc.

In addition, there will be brief interruptions to both on-campus services and the Internet beginning at 9:30 PM, due to several maintenance activities, including file server updates and back-end systems. Throughout this time, on-campus users will experience brief periods where some services may be unavailable. All services (other than Banner as detailed above) are anticipated to be restored by 10:00 PM.

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