Don't be a victim of identity tax theft! The IRS is helping to protect false tax claims.

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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.

CI network upgrade update

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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.


Thanks for your ongoing patience as we continue to improve the speed and reliability of the campus network. 

Faster network coming to CI

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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

Adobe Flash Player Exploit Found - What you can do protect your systems.

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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.


Here are instructions on how to disable Adobe Flash in current browsers. If Flash is disabled, it can be temporarily re-enabled if needed. Follow the steps for all browsers used. If you use multiple browsers it may be simpler to uninstall Adobe Flash: http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/uninstall-flash-player-windows.html.

Mac

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

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

  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

Fake Dropbox login page nabs credentials, is hosted on Dropbox

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An email with the subject “important” tells recipients that they must sign into Dropbox in order to view a document too big to be sent via regular email, but clicking on the link included in the message brings people to a fake Dropbox login page that is actually hosted on Dropbox. 

Link to the rest of this SC Magazine article to find out more about this new scam.

Mobile-friendly email, web and myCI changes launch on August 8 and 15

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The Division of Technology & Communication has been working on several updates to email, web and myCI services to provide a more mobile-friendly experience to the CI community.

Beginning at 5pm on Friday, August 8, T&C will begin maintenance to launch an updated web-based version of Microsoft Outlook for employees. Email will be unavailable at various times during the maintenance period (August 8 at 5pm until Sunday, August 10 at 8pm). Please review the Outlook and MyCI preview screenshots PDF for screenshots of the new Outlook interface (for desktop and for mobile devices) to familiarize yourself with the new user interface. Once the maintenance is complete, you may continue access to your email via myCI.

On August 15, CI will launch a more mobile-friendly web site. For background information on this project, please visit: http://beta.harbor.csuci.edu/preview/.

In addition, myCI will have a new mobile-friendly interface starting on August 15. To prepare for the new look & feel, please familiarize yourself with the new myCI interface as shown in the Outlook and MyCI preview screenshots PDF

The functionality of applications in the "My Links" section of myCI (such as CI Records, CI Learn, etc.) will NOT change as a result of the myCI update. Aside from some minor re-ordering of the modules once you log in, the module names and locations have stayed the same. However, if you have produced documentation using screenshots which describe processes using myCI, please review your process documentation to ensure that it is still appropriate.

The URL for myCI will remain the same; you may still access myCI at https://myci.csuci.edu.

Visitors to the forthcoming CI web site may continue to access myCI from the forthcoming CI homepage by clicking on the “myCI” link at the top of the page (on a smartphone or tablet, this means clicking the menu icon at the top of the page; please see the attached "ci-web-menu-icon" image for reference.)


Please contact Carlos Miranda at carlos.miranda@csuci.edu or call 805-437-8552 with any questions or concerns about these updates, and thanks for your support in making CI a more mobile-friendly campus. 

CI web site migration - content freeze begins July 15

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The migration of existing web site content to the new CI web site design is scheduled to begin on July 15, 2014, in preparation for the August 15, 2014 go-live of the new site.


Starting on July 15, Web Services shall disable edit access to all CI web sites for all sites in migration phases 1A-1D, including all hosted on www.csuci.edu. View the list of migration phases here: http://bit.ly/1sj9nvg


During this time, all requests for content changes must be sent to the T&C Help Desk at helpdesk@csuci.edu. Due to the timing and scope of work required, campus organizations may experience delays in posting updated content during this period. This content freeze is necessary to complete the migration of the new CI web templates.


Web Services team members shall migrate new content to the new site as appropriate, and make adjustments to the design and organization of content within the new site as needed. In addition, Web Services shall apply the new mobile-friendly web site template to all existing pages in the designated migration phase.


Once the initial migration is complete (expected July 22), the Web Services team will then notify the primary website contacts in the phase that the migration is ready for their final review.


Between July 22 and August 5, web site subject matter experts will then check pages/sites to verify that content and interactive elements have migrated as expected, and will report discovered issues via the “Give us your feedback” link at the top of each page. During this period, Web Services shall repair, to the best of its ability, all discovered issues and re-publish them for further review/preview.


From August 6 to August 14, Web Services will perform final pre-launch quality assurance and migration of content.


Between August 14 and August 15, Web Services shall publish all new and updated content for sites in Phases 1A-1D, replacing the old www.csuci.edu home page and other sites as appropriate.


Upon successful completion of publishing of the migrated sites (on or after August 15), Web Services shall re-enable edit access to new web site content as appropriate. At that time, organizations may resume editing their updated sites and report further discovered issues to the T&C Help Desk for assistance with repair.
For questions relating to specific web pages or sites, please contact Web Services Supervisor Daniel Martinez at daniel.martinez@csuci.edu.
For general questions about the project or the content freeze, please contact Director of IT Strategy Peter Mosinskis at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the web site migration! More information on this project is available on the Web Refresh project web site.