A vulnerability in Windows Remote Desktop was identified and fixed by Microsoft in their recent round of updates. There is there is also an exploit for the vulnerability making its way around the Internet as I write this.
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USM, as part of a UMS-wide contract uses Symantec for anti-virus protection. This is a great agreement and provides free anti-virus to all our students, faculty, and staff at work and at home. Even though we do not use pcAnywhere, our staff felt the severity of the problem and the unprecedented response from Symantec warranted us passing it along to the community. What follows is from a Computerworld post on the current issue.
The Computing Services Helpdesk gets quite a few calls each day. We are always looking for ways to reduce your need to call us. Along those lines, one of the most common questions we get is, “Is the email server down?” More generally, “is <insert service here> down?” There’s an easy way for you to get notified of when we have scheduled maintenance before it happens and even when unscheduled technology problems crop up on campus. That way is our “outages” email list.
The outages list is primarily intended for technology-savvy folks, it is often filled jargon and other technical terms and computer system names that may not always make sense to someone outside Information and Technology. But, if you are brave enough to use the delete key liberally (about once or twice a week) you can fill your email box with dates, times, and durations of the updates we make the problems we fix, mostly behind the scenes.
We also re-post messages from the University System’s Information and Technology Services that affect USM. Those messages include MaineStreet, Balckboard, connectivity between other Universities, and the Internet at large. These tend to get sent directly to specific areas (Human Resources, or Finance and Administration) by the system office, but the outages list is a method to get the message to everyone who wants to know.
To subscribe to the outages list, surf over to lists.usm.maine.edu and fill out the form there. In a few minutes, you will receive confirmation instructions via email and begin receiving messages.
Apple will announce today, July 20, 2011 that an update (costing $29.99) to its operating system will be available for purchase and download from its Mac App Store. Since (1) this new operating system is untested with USM and UMS mission-critical applications at this time, and (2) there not any mechanism for reimbursing individuals or departments for Mac App Store purchases, please do not install Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) on any USM-owned computers at this time.
If you’re interested in installing it on a personally-owned Macintosh, you may wish to investigate the following articles regarding upgrading:
http://www.macworld.com/article/161215/2011/07/lion_ships_wednesday.html
http://www.macworld.com/article/161218/2011/07/snow_leopard_migration_asst_update.html
http://www.tidbits.com/article/12288
Thank you to Jim Kessler for researching and documenting this information.
As the semester winds down, the review of minimum computer requirements for our computer labs, classrooms, and general use is in full swing. The following are our proposed updates to both the minimum Windows-based and Apple-based computer systems. Both revisions take into account the support offered by the vendors (Apple, Dell, and Microsoft) for only their two most recent releases of software.
Windows Computers
Windows 7 has been our standard shipping operating system for all Windows-based computers since August 2010. With that change we dropped support for versions of Windows prior to Windows XP Service Pack 3. This matches Microsoft’s support plans as well; updates are not available for older systems.
2011-2012 Minimum Requirements (proposed):
Apple Computers
This summer Apple will be releasing its next version of OS X v10.7, codenamed Lion. This new version will only run on Intel based systems. Apple will very likely stop issuing updates to OS X v10.5 shortly after the Lion release. Therefore, we will be updating our requirements appropriately to be in-line with what is supported by Apple.
2011-2012 Minimum Requirements (proposed):
As it nears the end of the spring semester and will quickly turn into summer, the plethora of scammers will be making their efforts to catch you off guard and gain access to your and the University’s information. Also, many of you may be working with new students in your offices to help plow through the piles of work on your collective desks. In the midst of all this please remember,
Do not share your password with anyone.
This is a continuation of regular updates about the Web Content Management System (Web CMS) conversion process, to ensure that everyone is kept informed of our progress. The first launch of the new Web CMS will occur approximately May 19.
The new USM website redesign and content management system conversion is a major project and involves changes that impact all of us, resulting in a new model of how we do business on the web. The content management system will give everyone greater access and flexibility to make changes and keep content up to date, but it also involves some adaptation to consistent formats and structures. These were designed as part of a two year long information architecture redesign that was completed last December, and allowed broad opportunities for input. The final architecture was designed to make the web more easily understood from a user perspective, rather than from an organizational perspective.
The Computing Helpdesk will be closing at 4:30pm today Monday, March 7th, 2011.
The Computing Helpdesk will be open extra hours during the 1st week of classes:
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