Archive for November 2012

Protecting Your System and Your Network

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In lieu of recent network cleanup activity I wanted to take this time to remind everyone of a couple of items that will help protect your system and your networks from virus attacks.

Attaching External Storage Devices
Before attaching any external storage devices to your computer whether it's a USB thumb drive or a large external hard drive, please run a virus scan on it before making the final connection.  This will save you alot of grief in the long run.

Clicking on Unknown Links in Email
If you receive an email and are asked to click on a link, unless you're expecting to receive an email with a link you may want to contact the person who sent the email before clicking that link.  The email could be a phishing or website spoofing scam that can either load unwanted malware or virus software onto your machine, or try and get you to give up personal information.  In either case, making a short phone call or sending a quick text or email will be worth not having to rebuild you machine.

Network GroupShares Now Available

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The personal network group fileshare (H:\ drives) have been restored and are now available. Within the next 20 minutes the remaining two fileshares (G:\ and Z:\ drives) will be released and be available as well. If you don't see your drive files right away you can try the following:

  1. Double click on the drive you're trying to access (H:\, G:\, or Z:\). If you can't see your files after this; 
  2. Reboot your computer. 
Thank you for your patience while T&C resolved this issue.

Network Groupshares Remain Unavailable

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The issue has been researched and the resolution is currently being finalized.  Once resolution finalization has been completed, the group fileshares (G:\, H:\, and Z:\ drives) will be made available.  The next status update will be at 2:00 PM.

Network Groupshares Currently Unavailable

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The following network groupshare drives are currently offline, G:\, H:\ and Z:\ drives.  T&C Infrastructure is currently researching the issue.  Please navigate to the T&C Information Security web page for status updates.  The next update is scheduled for 1:00 PM unless the issue is resolved before then.

November 2012 - secureCI Monthly Security Newsletter Now Available

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secureCI, CI's monthly information security awareness newsletter is now available for viewing. Please follow this link to view the November issue of secureCI.

CI Docs launched - new document sharing and collaboration service

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In August, we posted an announcement about CI Docs, a new service for students, faculty and staff that makes sharing and collaborating on documents faster and easier than ever.

We're very pleased to welcome CI Docs, powered by Google Apps for Education, as the newest member of a growing family of technology services focused on collaboration, mobility and productivity.

Here are the top 5 benefits of using CI Docs:

  1. Create, collaborate and share documents with just your web browser. With CI Docs, members of the CI community can create and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets and presentations in real-time, using only a web browser; no additional software is required.
  2. Control how you share your documents. CI Docs users can share their documents with friends, other students, faculty and colleagues outside of CI, while controlling access to view and edit as desired.
  3. Access documents anywhere and anytime. Students & employees can access CI Docs using any computer with a modern web browser (such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer)  including mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Forgot your thumb drive at home? No problem; files stored in CI Docs live "in the cloud", and can be accessed from anywhere you have internet access and a modern browser.
  4. Lots of free storage and many supported file types. Each CI Docs user can store up to 5GB of documents right from their web browser, and CI Docs users can view over 15 popular file formats.
  5. Convert Microsoft Office files for real-time collaboration. Just upload your documents to CI Docs, and choose the option to convert when prompted. You're now ready to share the document and collaborate with friends and colleagues online and in real-time. Certain restrictions to real-time collaboration do apply. 
Ready to get started? Just login to myCI, and click the "CI Docs" link.

To learn more, please visit the CI Docs web site. As always, if you experience problems or need help, please contact the T&C Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8552.

Beware of Phishing Scams!

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We've all received them, emails from a seemingly trusted source like a bank, delivery company or even your own place of employment, claiming there was some type of issue or another requiring you to offer up some personal information or click on a link or button to help clear the issue up. If you receive an email of this sort DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK OR OFFER UP ANY INFORMATION!


This is a common form of security attack called a phishing or spear phishing scam.

Groups attempting to steal personal information will often use e-mails that appear to originate from a trusted source to try and trick a user into entering valid credentials at a fake website. Typically the e-mail and the web site look like they are part of a bank or some other organization the user is doing business with.

If you receive any email asking for personal information or to click on a link and you think it may be fraudulent, please report it immediately to the T&C Helpdesk at X8552 or helpdesk@csuci.edu. They will assist you and instruct you on how to remove it effectively.

Remember...  nobody from T&C will ever ask you for any personal information, including your password!

Partial Email Outage, Thursday, 11/1/2012

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Our campus staff and faculty email system was unavailable for some users for several hours this morning, Thursday November 1. The cause was an unusually large volume of email which filled up some of the disk storage assigned to the system. Once the problem was identified, Technology & Communication staff members were able to clear out the storage so that the system could resume normal operation. While some members of our community were inconvenienced, we don’t believe that any email was lost. The problem was fully resolved before 9 AM.

The campus email system is one of our most critical technology services. We consider any unanticipated down time to be unacceptable, and we apologize for the inconvenience that you may have experienced. Please be assured that we will analyze the cause of this outage and take steps to reduce the likelihood of similar problems in the future.

Michael Berman, VP for Technology & Communication

Don't Use Unauthorized Software!

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It may be tempting to download useful-looking software that you can get free on the Internet, but these tools may carry a hidden cost. Installing them may often cause other programs to stop working which and when reported, it can take a long time for our T&C teams to track down the problem. More seriously, they can display unwanted ads, slow your PC down or make it less secure by letting the computer download more ads from the Internet. Most seriously, they can be infected by viruses or spyware that are intended to damage your computer or steal confidential information.  If you find software that you feel will benefit your department or the University, please contact the T&C Helpdesk (x8552 or helpdesk@csuci.edu) and request a software evaluation.