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Dr. Hoit's Office
Open Letter to Staff: Wrapping Up a Busy Summer for UF IT
If you've been gone for a while, you've missed a lot. Some major
improvements happened over the last three months.
Among other news, we've been busy upgrading (e-Learning and video
conferencing), moving into new spaces (check out the new Hub renovations!)
and lots more. Read on and find out what's been cooking in UF IT.
Complete Story at right.
CNS Hosting Services
Benefit Departments
CNS's new hosting service is off and running. Over the past
year the CNS Open Systems Group has been expanding its hosting
services to include new customers from departments throughout the
University community. Currently over twenty new departmental web
projects
have benefitted from this service and more are being added at a
steady pace.
New CICS Version Installed
IBM's Customer Information Control System (CICS) is
the engine which powers many of the mission-critical functions at UF. CNS
recently upgraded its CICS systems to version TS 3.2.
Free CICS & Web Services Workshop at UF
The
CNS CICS Systems Group is pleased to
announce that they have made arrangements with IBM to offer a 3-day hands-on
workshop on "CICS and Web Services" FREE for interested UF IT professionals.
GatorLink Authentication System Upgraded
On Sunday, August 19, 2007, CNS upgraded the
underlying hardware behind the GatorLink Authentication (GLAuth) system
(login.gatorlink.ufl.edu), in preparation for the start of Fall semester.
In addition to the hardware upgrade, we made various minor improvements to
make the system more robust. This is the first significant upgrade to the
GLAuth system in 7 years.
For more CNS news,
please see our newsletter,
/Update.
High Performance Computing Center
UF HPC Performs Annual Maintenance and Installs Upgrades
The UF High Performance Computing Center's (HPC) Phase IIb cluster was
down for several days in late July and early August for maintenance and
upgrades. The cluster has been running 24/7 since its latest expansion in
January 2007.
UF Security Engineers Sawyer & Wiens on Repeat-Championship
"Hacker Team"
During August 3rd-5th, two security engineers
from the UF Information Technology Security Team participated as members
of team "1@stplace," whose deliberately ambiguous name is meant to
acknowledge the fine line between success and defeat in the world of IT
security. For the second year in a row, 1@stplace
won the two-and-a-half-day electronic Capture the Flag competition called
WarGamez at
DefCon 15.
UF ISM Kathy Bergsma Co-Chair of Educause
Risk Assessment Working Group
Continuing UF's leadership in national roles for important issues, UF
Information Security Manager Kathy Bergsma has accepted an invitation to
co-chair the Risk
Assessment Working Group of the Educause Security
Task Force.
Congratulations to Kathy on this
well-deserved honor!
No "ITSA-Day" This Year
The UF IT Security Team regrets that they do not have the resources to produce ITSA Day this year. The Team has been dedicating time to other projects that will improve the security of your computing experience at UF. Instead, the Team plans to offer a series of Security Lunch and Learn events in October. See the next article (below) for more information.
Security "Lunch and Learn" Sessions During Cybersecurity Awareness Month
During
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month -- October 2007 -- the UF
IT Security Team is offering a series of "Lunch-and-Learn" events to help
provide IT professionals the knowledge to improve UF's IT security
infrastructure.
We want the discussions to be based on the needs of the UF IT community.
Therefore, we are asking for your
input with this
survey to direct the focus of these events.
New Risk Assessment Guidelines & Training
The Information Security Management (ISM)
subcommittee of the Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC)
to the UF Chief Information Security Officer (CIO) drafted new IT risk
assessment standards and guidelines. Implementation is targeted for this
Fall. Training classes will be offered with dates and times to be
announced.
IT Security & YOU: Be Aware of Private Data Responsibilities
To limit damage and liability, security incidents
involving hosts used with private data such as social security numbers or
financial accounts must be reported to the
UF Privacy Office, 273-5094.
Know which hosts in your unit are used with private data. Know who is
authorized to use private data. Ensure that users of private
data understand their responsibility to protect it.
Sawyer Presents IT Security Talk to Freshmen
In August, UF Senior Security Engineer John Sawyer gave a
presentation to incoming UF freshmen on the ins and outs of basic computer
security. They were in good hands. Along with fellow security whiz Jordan
Wiens, Sawyer was part of the hacker team that won the prestigious WarGamez competition at DefCon 15 earlier in the
month.
Sawyer and the others on the UF IT Security team regularly take time to
talk about IT security topics to various groups on and off campus. They've
shared their expertise at international conferences, local IT groups,
state-wide educational organizations, and UF peer organizations.
Want to know more? The UF IT Security
Team has a wealth of information for users at their website.
Wiens Attends Black Hat Briefings Las Vegas
2007
If IT security is your main focus, then the Black Hat conference, which
takes place regularly in Las Vegas, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Washington D.C.,
may be a destination you should consider.
Jordan Wiens, UF senior security engineer, attended Black Hat 2007 in Las
Vegas. As reported in this article, Wiens also
attended DefCon 15, another "hacker" conference. "Black Hat has much of
the same content as DefCon, but because it is much more 'corporate', you
also get to meet with all of the security vendors, the people who make the
tools you use."
IT Training
One-Stop Shopping for On-Line IT Training
Recent changes in the on-line IT training world have resulted in a proliferation of different sites offering different courses to UF users. Where, in the past, we simply had one NETg site, now there are two different NETg sites, plus the Microsoft IT Academy site.
In an effort to simplify access to the available on-line IT training resources, we have created a consolidated Web-page, listing all available courses, so you can select the course you need, without having to search multiple sites.
Watch for Peer2Peer This Fall!
For UF-specific IT training with UF IT experts,
make sure you plan to attend the Peer2Peer training this
fall. The tentative date is November 15. Topics and speakers are still
being finalized, but you can be sure
they'll be saying something you need to hear.
Watch for announcements!
Fall 2007 IT Orientation
If you're a new UF IT employee, you should plan to attend IT
Orientation, tentatively scheduled for October 18.
Microsoft IT Academy at UF: Course Changes
UF is privileged to have been granted acceptance as a member institution of the Microsoft IT Academy. One of the benefits of our membership in this program is access to the Microsoft E-Learning Portfolio.
Each year at the beginning of August, Microsoft refreshes the offerings in its E-Learning Portfolio. We encourage all members of the UF community to take advantage of these excellent training opportunities which are available FREE to all UF students, faculty, and staff. The courses may be accessed using your GatorLink username and password at www.cns.ufl.edu/training.
Web Administration
Web Administration Completes a Variety of Projects
Since the last edition of IT Connections, Web
Administration has been working on a number of interesting projects
including Calendar, On-Line Course Evaluation, WIPA login pages, and
Workflow/Approvals. We also produced major redesigns of urel.ufl.edu, gogatornation.com and
performingarts.ufl.edu.
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