Submitted on behalf of David Weil, Associate Vice President for Information Technology
Dear Members of the Campus Community,
As we shift to teaching, learning, and working remotely, I wanted to provide an update on the things that Information Technology has been working on to support you in these efforts.
We’ve been working hard to support the expanded technology needs of our students, faculty, and staff, focusing our IT staff and technical resources to prepare for a dramatic increase in the number of people using our services. We’ve increased capacities, expanded our service desk, improved our remote capabilities, and worked with our technical vendor partners to enhance their ability to support the campus. It’s an ongoing effort, and we will have to continually adjust as we learn the new usage patterns and support needs.
The sections below provide brief summaries of some of the things that we’ve put in place or are working on to help you through this transition, including resources, security updates, and tips if you encounter issues. I hope you find them helpful. I also encourage you to visit our web page at www.ithaca.edu/it - where we’ll continually post new information as things evolve.
Please reach out to the IT Service Desk or me directly if there is anything we can do to help you navigate these changes.
-Dave
David Weil
Associate Vice President for Information Technology
dweil@ithaca.edu
Some of the things that we have put in place already:
Resources we have made available:
Security:
Attackers are taking advantage of the coronavirus situation through phishing and malware attacks.
Phishing – Be wary of email messages with warnings or news about coronavirus. We're seeing phishing attacks aimed at scaring people at IC into clicking links or opening attachments that attempt to install malware. Some of these messages have appeared to come from the World Health Organization (WHO), departments of health, and other officials. We also expect to see some that appear to come from news sources or from Ithaca College leadership or departments. Please check the sender’s email address (and not just the displayed “sender name”) in all messages to help verify them, and don’t trust any messages (often highlighted with a yellow warning bar) that come from outside of the @ithaca.edu domain.
Use of Personally-Owned Computers – If you have an IC laptop, please use it for all IC work while away from campus. Connecting it to your home monitor, keyboard, mouse, or printer is fine. We cannot protect your personally-owned home computers (or IC data or passwords used with them), and using your IC laptop for work helps protect both you and our students. This includes accessing email and all other systems because malware on your home computers could steal your IC passwords as you type them in. Use of personally-owned phones or other mobile devices does not represent as much risk as computers, as long as they’re updated, not jailbroken, and use only apps from the official Apple or Google app stores.
Tips for better performance:
With the current pandemic, the world’s IT infrastructure is being used at levels unseen before. Most of the infrastructure is holding up well. Providers do encounter some disruption as they continually tune their systems to handle the increased loads. Some tips if you encounter issues:
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20200319185335197