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Dr. Hoit's Office
Open Letter to Staff
The Office of Information Technology has been actively pursuing projects that make your jobs easier. Three exciting new projects are underway: new computer purchasing contract, electronic submission of course changes, and improved campus calendaring. We are excited about these projects and will continue to work to improve communications, organizational excellence and opportunities through the user focused IT.
Complete Story at right.
Dial-Up Internet at UF Continues
UF is pleased to announce that dial-up internet service will continue using the current charging model. The service will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure its usage and benefit to campus warrant continuation.
AT Services Moving to The Hub!
During the week of Spring Break, Academic Technology's services will move to the renovated Hub where they will be fully operational by March 19th. The UF Computing Help Desk and Learning Support Services will be conveniently located at the Hub and provide current services such as GatorLink account services, technical consulting, administrative support with myUFL, assistance with WebCT Vista and Electronic Thesis and Dissertations. Help Desk services are also expanding at the new location.
Federated Identity: Identity Management at the University of Florida
Dr. Mike Conlon presented an invited paper entitled "Identity Management at the University of Florida" at the Educause CAMP: Charting
Your Authentication Roadmap event in Tempe Arizona on February 8, 2007.
CNS Says Farewell to Retiring Associate Director Marie Dence
On February 28th, 2007 CNS bade fond farewell to Associate Director Marie Dence, who retired after 34 years of dedicated service.
Network Services Upgrades Continue for UFL Core
CNS completed another round of core router supervisor upgrades this February. All UFL core routers now have the Supervisor 720 modules which support 10GE and advanced features, and have more capacity for core services such as Access Control Lists (ACLs).
New Mainframe Installed
On Monday, January 8 2007, CNS accepted delivery of a new IBM z9 BC mainframe processor, which replaced our current IBM z800 processor.
This new processor will allow us to take advantage of ongoing improvements in both the operating system (z/OS) and major subsystems (such as CICS), and also provide an upgrade path enabling us to add additional capacity in order to keep pace with the ever-increasing needs of the University of Florida for information processing.
Virtual Tape Server to Replace Cartridge Tapes
For many years, customers needing a low-cost, high-capacity storage system for their data have used magnetic tape. CNS currently has approximately 25,000 physical tape cartridges which we store for our customers. These cartridges, which represent a two-decades-old technology, are bulky, slow, and require human-operator intervention to physically locate and load cartridges into a tape-drive each time a program wishes to access one.
CNS is currently in the process of installing a new "Mainframe Appliance for Storage" (MAS) system from Bus-Tech, which is a virtual tape server that uses software to emulate standard tape cartridges on modern hard-drive-based systems.
CNS z/OS DASD move to 3390-9's
As we announced in the CNS News Item N0450, CNS has installed a new IBM DS8100 storage subsystem for z/OS which has been configured with 3390-9 (9GB) virtual volumes for mainframe disk data sets providing
enhanced capacity with greater reliability and performance. The new
volumes are available for use now and we encourage customers to assist
with this move using the following directions. Instructions at the end of
this message describe how to begin using the 3390-9's and include some
warnings about the move.
As an incentive for CNS customers, all data moved to the 3390-9's
from the old pools will not be charged for space through the end of March
(FREE!). Normal charges resume on April 1. As soon as you are ready to
start using the new DASD (and saving money) please help us by moving your
data sets to the new 3390-9 DASD volumes.
For more CNS news,
please see our newsletter,
/Update.
UF's Student "White-Hat Hackers:" The Student InfoSec Team
The Student InfoSec Team meets on campus twice each week to learn the methods hackers use to compromise computer systems and networks and the techniques used to defend against those attacks.
On-Demand Security Scanner Tool for UF Net-Managers
You just set up a new computer, upgraded an operating system, or installed a new application. Is it secure? Is it free of known vulnerabilities? All hosts connected to the UF network must be scanned for vulnerabilities.
Computing and Networking Services Security provides an "on-demand" scanning solution to help UF Network Managers know whether or not a system -- or group of systems on a subnet -- is securely configured. It's called Nessus.
How cyber-savvy are you? Attend the C-SAFE Workshop April 24th
On April 24th the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and SecureFlorida.org are bringing a free, one-day seminar on safe computing practices to the University of Florida Reitz Union Auditorium in Gainesville. C-SAFE: Cyber-Security Awareness for Everyone is hosted by the UF IT Security Team as part of their goal to raise security awareness at UF and in the Gainesville community.
UF IT Security Policies: How Much Do You Know?
How familiar are you with UF's IT Security Policies? Check the "InfoSec FAQ" for a quick review!
UF's Prize-Winning Hackers Share Their "Exploits"
How can hacking skills be used to help secure UF's IT systems? Come hear first-hand from UF Network Security Engineers how they took top honors at "the largest underground hacking event in the world," and how they use their "ski11z" to protect UF's information technology assets against threats.
Still Another Gator Championship: UF's Jordan Wiens Wins RSA 2007 "Interactive Testing Challenge"
Senior Network Security Engineer Jordan Wiens continued the UF Security Team's winning tradition by winning the "Interactive Testing Challenge" at this year's RSA 2007 conference.
John Sawyer Teaches "Cyber Self-Defense" To UF Employees
On Feb 7, 2007, John Sawyer, IT Senior Security Engineer on the UF IT
Security Team, taught a class for HR titled "Cyber Self Defense." The
course was designed to raise awareness amongst faculty and staff on
topics including safe web browsing, principle of least privilege,
encrypting and backing up files, e-mail safety and wireless security.
Mark Kovacic Transfers to Shands IT Security Staff 
The UF IT Security Team would like to say "Thanks, and Bon Voyage" to Network Security Engineer Mark Kovacic, who moved to the Shands IT Security group on February 24, 2007.
Mark joined the UF IT Security team in July 2004 as a network security engineer. His main project since joining the security team has been "Datalus," the automated service that distributes incident tickets to UF administrators.
We want to take this opportunity to thank Mark for his many contributions to the mission of the UF IT Security team. We've enjoyed working with him and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role in the Shands IT center.
Good Luck, Mark!
IT Training
New On-Line Training Available!
Microsoft IT Academy Online Learning Program
The UF IT Training Committee is pleased to announce the availability of a new on-line training opportunity for
all current UF students, faculty, and staff; the Microsoft IT Academy. These courses can be accessed by anyone with a valid GatorLink username, from a Windows 2000 (or later) workstation running Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
The newly available courses include:
- "Core Training" and "Advanced Training" for Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, & Word (2002/2003 versions) (15 courses)
- A+ Certification Core Hardware Third Edition (5 part series)
- A+ Certification Operating Systems Third Edition (9 part series)
- Network+® Certification Fourth Edition (5 part series)
- MS SQL Server 2000 (3 courses)
...and others.
UF IT Certification Program Ready for Faculty & Staff
The UF Information Technology Certification (UF ITC), formerly known as the Computer Challenge, offers free, guided programs and recognition to University of Florida faculty and staff for increasing their computer knowledge and skills.
IT Orientation
The spring Information Technology (IT) Orientation is scheduled for April 18 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Center for Instructional Technology and Training (CITT). See CITT's home page at
http://www.citt.ufl.edu for more information about the facility. Registration is available at http://oak.circa.ufl.edu/~cittreg/current_schedule.html.
The Information Technology Orientation is intended for newly hired IT staff or current IT staff who would like a refresher on the responsibilities of IT personnel at UF and the resources available to help them meet those responsibilities. All new IT employees are encouraged to attend.
Peer2Peer Workshop Scheduled April 5th
Peer2Peer is an informal and informative series of training sessions providing the University of Florida IT technical community with information on the resources and information available to them via our own experts. Peer2Peer sessions are open to the public. The next Peer2Peer is scheduled for the morning of April 5th, at the Reitz Union.
Tentative sessions for this event include:
- Privacy Initiatives in Academia: Privacy Depends on Security Measures
- Wallplate: Campus Network Connectivity and Management
- Ergonomics: Taking Care of the "Warmware"
Web Administration
Easy Steps To Make Your Web Pages More Accessible
UF has a strong commitment to facilitate the use of our Web pages by people with disabilities. Here are some suggestions and tools which we hope will provide some help to Webmasters in making it easier for those using assistive devices to access the Web.
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