October 5th, 2001 by Dana Roode
NACS maintains six computer labs for campus use, and we have upgraded many of our systems to meet the demands of a new academic year.
The 25 Macintosh systems in Lab A (Engineering Gateway 1131) have been upgraded to 533Mhz G4 Towers with 15″ flat-panel displays and CD-RW drives.
The 46 computers in MSTB 210 have been upgraded to Gateway “Profile 3″ PCs featuring 1Ghz Intel Celeron processors, 512MB memory, and 15″ flat-panel displays. The 733Mhz PCs which were used in this lab last year are now available in Lab C (Engineering Gateway 1151).
All of Knack’s PC labs now run Windows 2000 Professional and require a login process using UCInetIDs and passwords. It is necessary to activate one’s UCInetID before using these facilities. (See http://www.activate.uci.edu).
For more information on the hardware and software available in NACS labs, along with locations, hours, and scheduling policies, please seehttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/computing/labs.html. Information on other public computing labs on campus can be found athttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/labs/
October 5th, 2001 by Dana Roode
NACS is pleased to announce that a site license for ArcView GIS has been acquired and that the software is now available for distribution on campus. GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, is software that combines geographic information with data about that area, making the data more approachable and useful. See http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/index.html for more information on GIS.
Thanks to a campus budget allocation, NACS will not need to collect usage fees from users during the first year of the license. The software is available for use on University-owned personal computers as well as laboratory computers.
The site license allows for unlimited campus distribution of ArcView 8.1, ArcView 3.2, and the Higher Education (data) Package, as well as unlimited access to on-line GIS training courses. Details of the major software items can be found at http://licenses.nacs.uci.edu/detail2.cfm?ProductID=75
On-line self-paced GIS training is available through the ESRI Virtual Campus. All Virtual Campus courses are available to UCI Faculty, Staff and Students. You can view the list of courses at http://campus.esri.com
Details of individual software products, and computer system requirements, can be viewed at the ESRI web site:http://www.esri.com/software/index.html
October 5th, 2001 by Dana Roode
NACS is also pleased to announce that, through June 2002, SAS is available on the UCI campus at no cost to users. Also, a new version of SAS, Version 8.2, is available for you to install. You can check out the SAS 8.2 installation CDs (there are 5 CDs for the normal installation) at the NACS help desk located on the second floor of Engineering Gateway, Room 2130.
If you would like further information or assistance with academic software, please contact NACS.
October 5th, 2001 by Dana Roode
Computer security continues to demand attention at UCI. In the first eight months of 2001, at least 952 attempts were made to scan systems on campus, seeking one of at least 60 different security vulnerabilities.
The good news is that almost all of these efforts failed, thanks to the ongoing effort of NACS staff and system administrators around campus. The bad news is that it will continue to be necessary for computer users on campus to stay informed and protect themselves. Three relatively recent attacks have gained publicity: Sircam, Code Red, and Nimda.
Sircam is a virus which comes as an e-mail attachment. Opening that attachment on Windows computers will execute “malicious code” which can harm your computer or distribute confidential information. Once a system is infected, it can also infect any other computer with which it is sharing disk resources (i.e., “network drives.”) Sircam can generate a large number of e-mail messages, each with a large attachment (200KB or more). It floods new victims’ mailboxes and places a great load on campus mail servers, thus interfering with systems beyond those infected. All “antivirus software” (such as McAfee and Norton) if up-to-date can detect and eliminate Sircam. This is easiest if you allow your antivirus software to use its automatic update feature. Code Red (and Code Red II) are “internet worms” which act through the Web server software IIS. This worm would change the content of your web site, and possibly launch “denial of service” attacks against other systems (seehttp://www.nacs.uci.edu/news/2001.4.html). Because Code Red could generate a lot of network traffic, it could even render HP printers with network (JetDirect) cards unusable. Code Red is deterred by having the latest update (”patch”) for IIS, but even the most careful administrators of Windows NT systems are vulnerable. (Windows 2000 systems are can be more thoroughly secured against Code Red.)
Nimda was another internet worm, which (among other techniques) could exploit vulnerabilities left behind by Code Red. Nimda was particularly insidious in that it could infect any computer using Internet Explorer to browse an affected Web site, with no sign to the person doing the browsing. Defense against Nimda is available at both ends: by patching IIS and making other prudent security changes to servers, and by running an up-to-date browser (Internet Explorer 5.01 or 5.5 with Service Pack 2, or Internet Explorer 6.)
NACS is coordinating a series of discussions on security techniques for computer support staff. If you would like to be included in the next meeting (to be held in October), please contact NACS.