The Division of Technology & Communication is pleased to share its annual report for the 2014-15 fiscal year for your review:

View the 2014-15 Annual Report (in PDF format)

We are deeply grateful to T&C staff, campus leadership, and the University community for their ongoing support in creating a technology environment that enhances the educational experience and University operations at CI.

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Google has released Chrome version 45.0.2454.85 to address multiple vulnerabilities for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Exploitation of one of these vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to take control of an affected system.

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to review the Chrome Releases page and apply the necessary update.

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We hope you had a great summer!

T&C had a fun and busy summer too:

• We completed some major network upgrades to make our wired and wireless network access faster and more reliable than ever.
• We set up classrooms and deployed over 300 new computers to our newest campus classroom and lab space: Sierra Hall.
• We made it easier to find campus events by adding CampusQuad to the goCI mobile app.
• We've made it possible for CI students & employees to get Microsoft Office for free.

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We're pleased to announce that CI has begun providing Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus for all faculty, staff and students at no cost via the Microsoft Campus Advantage program. 

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Our little darling just turned one! On Saturday, August 15, CI's mobile-friendly responsive web site celebrated its first birthday, and we sure are proud of it.

It's been a great first year, and here's what we have to show for it:

13% increase in pageviews of the CI web site overall
27% increase in pageviews of the About CI page
41% increase in pageviews of the Academics page
65% increase in pageviews of the Visit Campus and campus tours pages
69% increase in pageviews of the main Admissions page (Admissions & Costs)
145% increase in pageviews across all Admissions pages
468% increase in pageviews across all tuition and fees pages
1421% increase in pageviews of the Student Life page

...and other significant increases across academic and administrative web sites...

...and a 29% decrease in our bounce rate across all primary CI web site properties...

...and a 39% decrease in exit percentage across all primary CI web site properties.

What do all these stats mean? They mean that more people are visiting the CI web site, and people are engaging more deeply with our web content.

If that wasn't enough, our web site was also recognized with 3 awards:

2014 Collegiate Advertising Awards Silver Winner in Website Design
2015 CASE District VII Award of Excellence (Bronze) for Institutional Web Sites (PDF)
30th Annual Education Advertising Awards Merit Award for www.csuci.edu 

Not too bad for a young university in Camarillo!

Since we launched, we've continued to make incremental improvements. Some highlights include:

1. Establishing a rapid, rotating refresh cycle for the banner images on the CI home page.
2. Changing the home page banners from static images to clickable images. We'll be keeping track of how this change in functionality increases our visitor interaction.
3. Working closely with our Enrollment Management team to develop and deploy a new consolidated "Calendars" page, which combines events, important dates and deadlines for prospective and incoming students.
4. Integrating new videos to help prospective students, parents and visitors to get to know CI.
5. Migrating all but 3 of our academic program web sites to our new mobile-friendly, responsive web site design, including subsequent re-designs of the Anthropology, Chicana/o Studies, and Nursing web sites.
6. Upgrading our Google Analytics to use Google Tag Manager to help us better manage our web analytics. 

• Migration of our Giving, Extended University and Library web sites to our new mobile-friendly, responsive design
• An updated electronic campus tour and viewbook
• Updates to the Housing and Dining web sites
• Migration of CI-developed web applications that are still using our legacy web framework.

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Apple has packed patches for dozens of security flaws into the new versions of its iOS and OS X operating systems.

The company noted Tuesday in a security advisory that just-released version 8.4 of the iOS mobile operating system contains more than 20 fixes for vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution, application termination and the interception of encrypted traffic, among other issues.

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We're pleased to announce that on Monday, June 29, the Division of Technology & Communication web site re-launched with an updated look and feel. Thanks to the Web Services team, the new T&C web site uses CI's new mobile-friendly, responsive web framework to make it easier to navigate on smartphones and tablets.

The new design also integrates a T&C-specific "search" bar on all pages of the site.

Feel free to contact Peter Mosinskis, Director of IT Strategy at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu with any comments, questions or suggestions for the new site.

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From 8 am to 5 pm on Saturday, June 20, 2015, access to certain T&C services will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.

Affected services (both onsite and offsite) include employee e-mail, webmail, University Library online services, Live Scan, credit card processing, Teale Access, building controls, VPN, internal websites, wireless or any other services requiring to communicate outside campus.

During the maintenance, the following services will be available from offsite:

CI's main site (www.csuci.edu) (with the exception of some features, such as the Account Activation/Reset within myCI);
CI Learn;
CI Records;
CI Financials;
CI Docs;
Dolphin Mail (student email);
DOCK Online;
Lynda.com;
CI Sync;
CSYou; and

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In order to take the next step in our ongoing network upgrade process, we will need to shut down major services between 8am and 8pm on Saturday, May 30. During that time, all campus telephones as well as wired and wireless on the campus will be completely unavailable. In addition, all faculty and staff email services will be suspended during that time. (Email will be queued and will be delivered to your mailbox in the hours after services are resumed.) MyCI (other than email), CI Learn, CI Records, and other major services will be available, but only from off campus. 

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There are all sorts of days to celebrate during the year such as Mother's Day and Father's Day, and even some more off-the-wall days such as National Fried Chicken Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and a personal favorite, National Pancake Day.  But today is an extra special day that should be added to everyone's calendars.  Today is International Password Day!

International Password Day gives us all the opportunity to stop and reflect on what makes a good password, and how we can best protect our work and personal data by using strong password concepts.

To help you along, there's even a website dedicated too helping you figure out what makes a good password, how to deal with keeping track of the never ending list of passwords, mobile device passwords, and even some funny stories about password catastrophes!

Please take the time in joining your information security team in making every day a strong password day!

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Along with today's wireless upgrade announcement, we also pleased to release v2.0 of the goCI app for iOS, Android and other mobile devices.

goCI v2.0 was completely re-built from the ground-up using the Modo Labs Kurogo platform and provides some important new updates, including:

• improved map and wayfinding capabilities; 
• a more flexible, tablet-friendly interface; and 
• better support for Windows phones and other mobile web devices, via m.csuci.edu 

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During our fall 2014 Tech Fair, we received feedback from many students about the quality of wireless access in the open areas around Broome Library.

We're pleased to announce that in collaboration with Facilities Services and our strategic partner Pinnacle, we've dramatically improved the wireless coverage in the Central Mall and Broome Library plaza.

So enjoy CI's great warm spring weather and study outside! Feel free to contact the T&C Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8552 to report any problems.

Broome Library plaza (photo: Isaac Hsieh / flickr CC)

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We're pleased to announce our partnership with Modo Labs to bring the next version of the goCI mobile app to the CI community, and to let you know that a new version of the goCI mobile app is coming soon.

The Modo Labs Kurogo platform was selected for its flexibility in delivering mobile content to the campus community in an efficient, organized and scalable way.

The Technology & Communication mobile development team has been working with Modo Labs implementation staff since January to migrate data and functionality to the new platform, and complete testing in anticipation of our next release.

Updates to the app include:

• improved map and wayfinding capabilities; 
• a more flexible, tablet-friendly interface; and 
• better support for Windows phones and other mobile web devices. 

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The network upgrade is over 85% complete and on schedule. Work continues on administrative and facilities-related buildings and infrastructure; 10 buildings remain to be migrated.

The current schedule and real-time status updates can be viewed in this Google Sheet.

Any remaining issues encountered after a building has been migrated should be reported to the T&C Help Desk at 805-437-8552 or by email at helpdesk@csuci.edu.

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Thanks to an upgrade to CI's Google Apps to Education platform, Dolphin Pod, students & employees now have unlimited storage.

This means that students & employees who use CI Docs, Dolphin Email or other Dolphin Pod services can store unlimited documents, photos and other files.

You can check how much storage you've used by visiting the Google Drive storage page (you'll need to login to myCI first before you visit that page to see your new updated storage capacity).

Have questions about Dolphin Pod? Visit the Dolphin Pod information page or contact the T&C Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu.

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CI's campus network upgrade is approximately 50% complete and on schedule. This week's work included the upgrade of most academic buildings on the main campus. Next week's work will focus on administrative and facilities-related buildings and infrastructure.

The current schedule and real-time status updates can be viewed in this Google Sheet.

Any remaining issues encountered after a building has been migrated should be reported to the T&C Help Desk at 805-437-8552 or by email at helpdesk@csuci.edu.

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One of the hot identity theft scams is submission of false tax returns in order to receive unearned or earned refunds. The IRS has a process to try and detect these false returns. If they suspect a false return they will mail a letter to the address the taxpayer listed in their previous year return. The IRS letter directs the taxpayer to visit an IRS site to verify the tax return submitted. Legitimate letters should direct taxpayers to idverify.irs.gov. More details are contained in this link:http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Taxpayers-Receiving-Identity-Verification-Letter-Should-Use-IDVerifyirsgov.

The IRS also has a great website page detailing active tax scams: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Scams-Consumer-Alerts.

If taxpayers suspect they are a victim of tax fraud/identity theft, they should contact the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1-800-366-4484 or via the web at:http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml

Taxpayers can forward scam emails to phishing@irs.gov.

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CI's campus network upgrade has been underway since 5am on Monday morning. T&C infrastructure team members have been working with AT&Ts engineers to complete the upgrade of buildings according to the implementation schedule.

The current schedule and real-time status updates can be viewed in this Google Sheet.

Once T&C infrastructure staff are satisfied that a building has been completed, signs will be posted at the entrances of each building informing users informing users of the completion.

Any remaining issues encountered after a building has been migrated should be reported to the T&C Help Desk at 805-437-8552 or by email at helpdesk@csuci.edu.

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After many months of planning, the campus is less than two weeks away from faster, stronger Internet access as the Technology Infrastructure team will be visiting each building over a span of 11 days to upgrade network connectivity.

During the planned upgrades, campus telephones, Internet access, wireless connectivity, and network connectivity for myCI, PeopleSoft, CI Learn, CI Records, CI Financials, CI Docs, CI Sync, etc. will not be available. Additionally, access to the campus wireless network from a different building than your own may not be available due to certain resources being bound to your location/workstation.

The upgrade process begins March 16 at Sage Hall and will continue through March 31. Installation in each building will take approximately four hours. You can review the planned schedule here to verify your building’s planned upgrade.

Ultimately, wireless access speeds will increase by 2 times, while wired access will increase by 10 times.

For more information, go to www.csuci.edu/tc or email questions to Herb Aquino, Manager of Technology Infrastructure at herb.aquino@csuci.edu

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Adobe is aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2015-0310 exists in the wild, which is being used in attacks against older versions of Flash Player. Additionally, Adobe is investigating reports that a separate exploit for Flash Player 16.0.0.287 and earlier also exists in the wild. For the latest information, please refer to the PSIRT blog here.  You may find more information about the Adobe Security Bulletin here.

Mac

1. On the Firefox tool bar go to Tools 
2. Select Add-ons 
3. In the Plugins tab, set Shockwave Flash to Never Activate 

1. On the Safari tool bar go to Safari > Preferences… 
2. In the Security tab, ensure Allow Plug-ins is checked 
3. Click on the Manage Website Settings… button 
4. Select Adobe Flash Player 
5. In the dropdown, select When visiting other websites: Block 
6. Click on the Done button 
7. Close the Preferences dialog box 

1. Type chrome:plugins in the address bar to open the Plug-ins page 
2. On the Plug-ins page that appears, find Adobe Flash Player 
3. Click the Disable ​link under its name 

Windows

1. Go to the Firefox menu button 
2. Select Add-ons 
3. In the Plugins tab, set Shockwave Flash to Never Activate 

1. Click the Tools button, and then click Manage add-ons 
2. Under Show, click All add-ons, and then select Shockwave Flash Object 
3. Click Disable, and then click Close 

1. Type chrome:plugins in the address bar to open the Plug-ins page 
2. On the Plug-ins page that appears, find Adobe Flash Player 
3. Click the Disable ​link under its name

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