On Saturday, November 16 Information Technology Services staff will perform required system updates. From 6 a.m. until 10 a.m. the following system will be intermittently unavailable:
-Advance
-Blogs
-Event Management system
-Image Now
-One Card services
-People Soft HR and HR self-service
-Provenue
-VPN services
-Voice mail system
We would like to remind you of the Google Apps browser support policy, the set of guidelines for Google Apps services interoperability support. We support the latest version of Google Chrome (which automatically updates whenever it detects that a new version of the browser is available) as well as the current and prior major release of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version of one of these browsers is released, we begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version.
Google’s test plans have been adjusted to now stop all testing and engineering work related to Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), as Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) was released on 17 October 2013. End users who access Gmail and other Google Apps services from an unsupported browser will be notified within the next few weeks through an in-product notification message or an interstitial pages with information about modern browsers and how to upgrade to them.
Editions included:
Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government
For more information:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/33864
On Saturday, October 19 Information Technology Services staff will perform required system updates. From 6 a.m. until 10 a.m. the following systems will be intermittently unavailable:
-Advance
-Event Management System (EMS)
-HolyCross websites and web applications including www.holycross.edu
-Image Now
-JasperSoft
-Kimball display menus
-Kronos (time clocks will remain online)
-Moodle
-Network printing
-Net Storage for users still on Novell
-One Card
-People Soft Finance
-People Soft HR & HR self-service
-Thin Clients
On Saturday, September 21 Information Technology Services staff will perform required system updates. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following systems will be intermittently unavailable:
-Advance
-Ecards
-EMS
-Eres
-Event management system
-Kiosk and thin client workstations
-Kronos (time clock will still be available)
-Login page
-Mahara
-Medicat
-Netstorage
-Network printing
-One Card services
-Studio Abroad
Information Technology Services and Physical Plant’s Environmental Services are pleased to announce our second “Data Destruction Day.” On October 3rd, in front of O’Kane on Linden Lane, the College’s shredding partner, ProShred, will be stationed with their paper and hard drive shredding trucks from 9am to 11am. Once again, bring in any paper items, old hard drives, floppy drives, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, zip drives, audio tapes, and ProShred will physically destroy them onsite. This year, Physical Plant’s Environmental Services is sponsoring a container to recycle your computer and computer peripherals as well.
Last year we trimmed College storage rooms and filing cabinets of roughly 4,000 pounds of paper, and 150 pounds of electronic storage media. Let’s try to beat those numbers this year. Those dot matrix reports that haven’t been a tree since 1976? That CD with your parent’s tax return from 1998 in the milk crate under your desk? Bring them. Even bring things from home, with the caveat that the College isn’t responsible for its security (though you’ll get to watch it be destroyed, so don’t let the disclaimer spook you).
All materials destroyed are recycled where possible by ProShred. All computers and peripherals will also be recycled by Environmental Services.
As with last year, some ground rules:
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
On Saturday, May 4 Information Technology Services staff will perform required system updates. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following systems will be intermittently unavailable:
Drupal logins for editing (Drupal websites will remain online)
Eres
EZ proxy
Kiosk workstations
Kronos (Time clocks will remain online)
Mahara
Medicat
Thin Clients
Wikis
Over the last 12 months, hackers have been targeting passwords of users through various resources on the Internet. In recent months, the following major websites have had their password databases stolen:
These attacks highlight the need to keep isolated credentials. Make sure the passwords you use for College resources are unique, and not similar to any password you use for external resources. In addition, you should keep your Holy Cross network password unique from your Holy Cross Gmail password. This “isolation” of passwords ensures that if one were to be compromised, the other is not. Another smart step to take is to enroll in Gmail’s 2-Step Verification. This is optional, but it will make it substantially harder for someone to steal control of your College gmail account. Details on 2-Step Verification are found here:
http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=180744
If you have used any of the aforementioned websites over the last year, and your password on those sites is even remotely similar to your College network password or College Gmail password, you are really must change your passwords. You may do by visiting our website, going to the Login page, and clicking on the “Password Reset” link.
The standing practice in ITS is to re-image a computer when it is infected with a virus. This process is a headache, both for the assigned user (in possible loss of stored data, definite loss time and productivity) and ITS (time to re-image, re-install software, etc.). In many cases the individual with the infected computer asks us why we can’t just “clean” the machine instead.
Viruses and malware are extremely complex. Cleaning utilities have tried valiantly to keep pace, but this endeavor is a losing battle: Anti-virus simply can’t keep up. Malware authors are quicker to adapt their products to circumvent cleaning tools and anti-virus. As a result, once a machine has downloaded malware, its integrity can never again be fully trusted. Even methods like Windows “System Restore” are not effective, as malware authors have adapted to that strategy by specifically targeting “System Restore” files.
The type of data an assigned person has access to partially dictates what leeway we give. If he or she has access to data classified as “protected” or “sensitive” by the College’s Data Classification policy, then the threshold is very low: A single detected instance of malware is sufficient to require us to re-image the computer. The College simply cannot risk the confidentiality of “protected” or “sensitive” data. If the person does not have access to such data, then we may wait to see if malware detections persist, in which case we insist on a re-image. Also, certain viruses are excellent at circumventing any attempts at eradicating them. In these cases, we mandate a re-image.
The best way to avoid a virus-related re-image is to never come in contact with a virus in the first place. Please avoid infection by limiting your use of College-owned computers to College-related purposes. For our part, ITS actively tries to address this by keeping computers current with software updates: the best technological tool in our arsenal. We are also continually investing in other high-tech means of making it less likely that you encounter malware.
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
On Saturday, March 2, Information Technology Services staff will be performing required system updates. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following systems will be intermittently unavailable:
-Advance
-CEMS
-Holy Cross websites and web applications including www.holycross.edu
-Image Now
-Jaspersoft reporting
-Kronos (time clocks will remain online)
-Medicat
-Moodle
-Network printing from workstations in Active Directory
-Oxford server network file access for academic departments
-People Soft Finance
-People Soft HR & HR Self-Service
-Print release stations
-Resource Space
-Thin Clients
Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students,
On Saturday, February 16, Information Technology Services staff will be performing required system updates. From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following systems will be intermittently unavailable:
-Advance
-Blogs
-Foodpro
-Holy Cross web applications
-Image Now
-Mahara
-Master Calendar
-Medicat
-Network file access for administrative departments
-News
-Nutritive Analysis menus
-One Card vending, laundry and Hogan deposit center
-People Soft Finance
-People Soft HR & HR Self-Service
-Resource Space
-STAR