Information Technology News

Phishing on the Rise

Phishing

Phishing is a name for fraudulent email messages sent by thieves to lure the recipient into divulging personal or financial information. Thieves can then use this information for mischief or profit.

These email messages pretend to be from well-known, legitimate businesses or organizations, and increasingly look as if they actually are.  We’ve seen phishing messages sent to UCI email accounts that have used the NACS name and logo in an attempt to look as genuine as possible.

These messages will often try to create a sense of urgency so the recipient won’t stop to think about the legitimacy of the message.

If you suspect that you have received a phishing email, do not respond to it or click on the links. Reputable organizations, including NACS, will never send an email message requesting personal information such as passwords or financial information. Always be wary of messages requesting such personal information.

For ways to recognize phishing email messages, and for additional information about phishing, see http://security.uci.edu/email/phishing.php

If you are unsure whether an email message about your account is a phishing email or not, call the organization directly to determine the status of your account. The NACS Response Center may be contacted at 949-824-2222 for questions about UCI accounts.

Faculty Recruitment Tool Update

Recruit Web Site

Recruit is a campus-wide, Web-based program for managing the faculty recruitment process. Recruit is part of Academic Personnel Systems, built as a partnership between the Office of Academic Personnel and NACS.

Recently, an important demographic data-gathering component was integrated into the system. This data was previously collected and managed through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity’s Faculty Applicant Survey Tracking system or “Fast”.

Recruit adapted the capabilities of the Fast system and now collects and stores anonymous applicant demographic data for all academic recruitments. Once an applicant fulfills the application requirements for a faculty position, Recruit links them to the survey. There they are asked to report sex and ethnicity anonymously on a one-page questionnaire.

Recruit administrators produce aggregate reports, enabling search committees and equity advisors to ensure the applicant pool represents multicultural and otherwise diverse populations, in compliance with federal regulations regarding equal opportunity and affirmative action in employment.

Since its launch just over two years ago, Recruit has been used by more than 11,000 men and women seeking a faculty post. In addition, Recruit’s data bank currently houses 50,989 applicant files and maintains 18,523 records for references.

The Recruit website can be found at recruit.ap.uci.edu

High Speed Academic Networking

CENIC Network

The Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC — http://www.cenic.org/)  and UC have been discussing a possible new network infrastructure.  The intent is to facilitate ad-hoc, point-to-point, gigabit research network connections among UC campuses and other institutions (including Stanford and USC) connected to CENIC’s High Performance Research (HPR) Network.

This new infrastructure would parallel the existing production network links and could provide two distinctive services: dedicated, low-latency bandwidth to researchers’ labs for special applications, and optical connections for network protocol development or similar activities.

A Zotmail to all faculty recently went out to identify those with needs in this area.  Faculty input is sought to guide NACS on how to proceed and at what priority relative to other network needs. For more information, please join the discussion mailing list high-speed-networking@uci.edu .

Meanwhile, if you transfer research data sets over the network, and the speed of doing so is impeding your work, we want to hear from you.  Please contact NACS at x42222 or email nacs@uci.edu .

Improving Wireless Connectivity

UCInet Mobile Access, UCI’s wireless network, comprises more than 800 access points (APs).  An “access point” is a network device which your computer connects to using wireless Ethernet.  The access point then forwards your network traffic to the wired network, in this case UCInet.

Express Registration

Express Registration allows a UCI affiliate to connect to the wireless network with a UCInetID and password, no longer requiring advance registration of the wireless card’s MAC address (that’s the 12-digit code arranged as six pairs separated by colons). Visitor Express Registration allows visitors to the campus to gain temporary access to the network without arranging for a sponsor.

WISM

NACS has recently deployed a new wireless technology (Cisco’s Wireless Internet Service Module — “WISM”) which enables a variety of new services.  WISM technology improves the performance of the wireless network by:

• automatically and dynamically allocating bandwidth as needed
• using dynamic channel reassignment to reduce channel conflicts and interference from competing APs
• dynamically adjusting the wireless transmission power output of the APs
• allowing “seamless roaming” between APs.

WISM also provides NACS with better tools to manage, monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize the wireless network, and makes Express Registration possible.

These new features are only available in certain campus buildings where WISM has been deployed, including Bren Hall, the Student Center, and the Libraries. NACS continues to deploy the WISM technology in more locations on campus and, subject to available funding, will eventually deploy WISM technology in all campus wireless network locations.

zotALERT Update

The UC Irvine text-message emergency notification system (”zotALERT”) has been in place for over 1 year now.  zotALERT is intended to be one component of a comprehensive campus emergency communication system.  Faculty and staff who have not already signed up can find instructions for doing so at the zotALERT web site.

zotALERT

UCI conducted a campus-wide test on June 6th.  The test notice was sent to 12,500 individuals (9,100 students and 3,400 faculty/staff) who had enrolled.  NACS set up a web site so recipients could report on the test.  Almost half of the recipients reported in. 96% of them received the test message, and the majority received it within 10 minutes.

The June test was noteworthy as it went out through our new zotALERT vendor, MIR3.  MIR3 provides a robust notification system that serves many higher education institutions such as UC San Diego, many Fortune 500 companies, and numerous federal, state, and local government agencies.

NACS works with MIR3 to assess all delivery failures.  In many cases, recipients do not receive the zotALERT messages due to submitting an incorrect phone number, or in some instances the recipient has signed up using a phone that doesn’t allow or support text messaging.

The MIR3 system offers multiple methods of notification.  NACS, along with the UCI Police Department and Environmental Health and Safety, are investigating the use of additional functionality.  Such options include mass emailing, prerecorded out-call voice messaging, and automated polling.