29 March @10:28:42 Brief Internet Outage in Hayden and Garage

At 10:28:42 today March 29th Hayden and the parking garage experienced a brief outage of approximately one minute. ITS has discovered the cause of the issue and is working to prevent any further outages. 

Capture Ideas in Google Keep, bring them to life in Google Docs

Great ideas can surface in unexpected places.  Google has created Keep to capture your thoughts anytime, anywhere -- with smart tools to help you easily organize your notes, ideas and to dos.


Starting today, you can capture your ideas improvements for work.  Keep is now a part of G Suite.  You can also take your ideas and notes from Keep and easily add them to Docs for easier brainstorming.

Get started by recording your notes, lists and drawings in Keep on Android, iOS, Chrome or the web.  While in Docs on the web, access the Keep notepad, via the Tools menu.  Your Keep notes will appear in a side panel within Docs.

Here are a few ways you can now work better with the integration between Keep and Docs.

• Drag your notes from Keep directly into your work documents.
• Easily search your notes in Keep while in Docs to find the information you need to complete your project.
• Add a new note in the Keep notepad or select text from inside of your document and easily add it to a new note (just right click and select "Save to Keep notepad").  When you open that note in Keep, we'll include a link back to the source document so you can always refer back to it.

Use Keep to capture your ideas and thoughts wherever you are, whenever inspiration strikes.  And now, quickly turn those thoughts into action -- right in Docs.

Partially reposted from https://blog.google/products/g-suite/capture-ideas-google-keep-bring-them-life-google-docs/

Set Sharing Expiration Dates: Google Drive, Docs Sheets and Slides

Granting access to your online files is an important part of collaboration. Sometimes temporary access is beneficial. However, file owners often forget to remove access privileges of particular collaborators. Google has now added the ability to automatically expire access on a chosen date in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides.

To set an access expiration date, go to the file’s Share Settings panel. Next to the access level of an individual user (or group), a stopwatch icon appears as you hover over that individual (or group). Clicking on it will reveal an expiration date pull-down menu. You can choose to have the access expire in 7 days, 30 days, or a date that you choose (“custom date”).

Please note:

• Expiration dates are only an option for users with comment or view access. This setting does not apply to file owners or users with edit access, as these users have the ability to modify access rights and could simply override the settiing

More Information
Help Center: Change your sharing settings in Google Drive
Help Center: Share Google Drive files and folders

partially reposted from the https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2016/03/set-expiration-dates-for-access-to.html

Possible brief network outages early Monday morning

We will be doing work on the network on Monday (March 27) morning at 7:30. This might create sporadic interruptions in service, each lasting less than a minute.

Adding College Calendars to your Google Calendar

Google Calendar can be a great tool to help manage meetings and personal events, however, sometimes it's helpful to know what else is happening on campus before scheduling a meeting or personal event.  Adding one or more College calendars to your personal Google Calendar can keep you up-to-date with what's happening on campus.

Before you start you will need to get the URL for the calendar you wish to subscribe to.   The following are the two college calendars that may be most useful to you:

Calendar Name	Calendar URL
Academic Calendar	http://25livepub.collegenet.com/calendars/mc-academic.ics
All Events (Advertised Events)	http://25livepub.collegenet.com/calendars/mc-advertised_events.ics

The above are not URLs you can go to, but URLs that will get copied to your calendar.

How to add a College calendar to your Google Calendar

1.  Obtain the URL of the calendar that you want to add from the above list (Tip:  Highlight the desired url and Copy)

2.  Access your Google Calendar by clicking the Google Apps menu at the top-right of your browser window from any Google App (such as Gmail) and clicking the "Calendar" icon.

3.  In the left pane of Google Calendar, scroll down to the "Other Calendars" section and click the drop-down icon.  Click "Add by URL" from the drop-down menu.

3.  Paste the URL of the calendar in the box and click "Add Calendar" when completed.

Please see our TD Knowledge Base Article: Adding College Calendars to your Google Calendar for more calendars and information.

RESOLVED - 25Live Service Interruption

We received a notification from 25Live that they are currently experiencing a service interruption. Here is their statement:

"We are currently experiencing an interruption in service for 25Live. Our support and IT staff are actively working to resolve the issue. We apologize for any inconvenience and will notify you as soon as systems are back to 100%."

We will update this page as we receive more information.

- - - - -

Updated at 10:58 AM, 3/22/2017:

The issue has been resolved. We received the following statement from 25Live support at 10:55 am:

"We have now resolved the 25Live service interruption issue that began at approximately 05:30 Pacific Time (08:30 Eastern) today. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Get Started with Team Drives

Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can store their files and guarantee that every member has the most up-to-date information, no matter the time or place. 

Team Drives make onboarding easy, because every person and Google Group added to a Team Drive gets instant access to that team’s documents. Moreover, Team Drives are designed to store the team’s work collectively, so if a document’s creator moves off of the team that document doesn’t go with them. 

Advanced access controls make Team Drives even more robust, preventing team members from accidentally removing or deleting files that others need.

Find out more about team drives. We are early adopters so more features are sure to come down the pike.

partially reposted from: https://gsuite.google.com/learning-center/products/drive/get-started-team-drive/

Summer Internships in ITS - Apply Now!

Several internship opportunities in the office of Information Technology Services (ITS) will be available to qualified candidates. Internships will consist of the following requirements:
- Project-based internship starting June 2017
- 10-week commitment
- Maintain an eportfolio with weekly reflections
- End of experience presentation in September (poster session)

Compensation includes a $3000 stipend as well as on-campus housing over the 10-week period. Students are also encouraged to take advantage of summer course offerings (separate fee).

Open to current students ONLY. Students eligible for Federal Work Study are encouraged to apply.

Applicants will be asked to propose a summer project and/or identify an area of focus. Past internships have worked on projects including WIFI deployment, IOS App development, and IT infrastructure monitoring and upgrades.

APPLY NOW

Banner Browser Compatibility

Dear Colleagues,

The latest version of Firefox (version 52) does not support NPAPI plugins which includes Java. What this means for the user community is that we can't use Firefox (version 52) for Banner as it is not supported.

However, there is a work around.  The following link, Firefox Extended Support Release will bring you to a knowledge base article that explains how to download the Firefox Extended Support Release.  Once this is installed, you should be able to use Firefox for Banner once again.

The following browsers that are compatible with Banner are;

Internet Explorer,

Firefox ESR,

Safari

 

If you have any issues, please feel free to reach out to the ITS Help Desk at 718-862-7973 or email them at its@manhattan.edu.

Thank you in advance.

Information Technology Services

Phishing Attacks Become More Sophisticated

Everyone Is Falling For This Frighteningly Effective Gmail Scam

Security researchers have identified a "highly effective" phishing scam that's been fooling Google Gmail customers into divulging their login credentials. The scheme, which has been gaining popularity in the past few months and has reportedly been hitting other email services, involves a clever trick that can be difficult to detect.

Researchers at WordFence, a team that makes a popular security tool for the blog site WordPress, warned of the attack in a recent blog post, noting that it has been "having a wide impact, even on experienced technical users." (See these people, whose accounts were targeted.)

Here's how the swindle works. The attacker, usually disguised as a trusted contact, sends a boobytrapped email to a prospective victim. Affixed to that email, there appears to be a regular attachment, say a PDF document. Nothing seemingly out of the ordinary.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

But the attachment is actually an embedded image that has been crafted to look like a PDF. Rather than reveal a preview of the document when clicked, that embedded image links out to a fake Google login page. And this is where the scam gets really devious.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

Tom Scott 

✔@tomscott

This is the closest I've ever come to falling for a Gmail phishing attack. If it hadn't been for my high-DPI screen making the image fuzzy…

6:54 AM - 23 Dec 2016

 
•  6,7116,711 Retweets
 
•  5,7775,777 likes

Everything about this sign-in page looks authentic: the Google logo, the username and password entry fields, the tagline ("One account. All of Google."). By all indications, the page is a facsimile of the real thing. Except for one clue: the browser's address bar.

Screenshot of Google login page 

Even there, it can be easy to miss the cue. The text still includes the "https://accounts.google.com," a URL that seems legitimate. There's a problem though; that URL is preceded by the prefix "data:text/html."

Via WordFence 

In fact, the text in the address bar is what's known as a "data URI," not a URL. A data URI embeds a file, whereas a URL identifies a page's location on the web. If you were were to zoom out on the address bar, you would find a long string of characters, a script that serves up a file designed to look like a Gmail login page. This is the trap.

As soon as a person enters her username and password into the fields, the attackers capture the information. To make matters worse, once they gain access to a person's inbox, they immediately reconnoiter the compromised account and prepare to launch their next bombardment. They find past emails and attachments, create boobytrapped-image versions, drum up believable subject lines, and then target the person's contacts.

And so the vicious cycle of hijackings continues.

For more on email, watch:

Phishing and Online Scams 101

Phishing like a Nigerian Prince isn’t the only way to hack info

Google Chrome users can protect themselves by checking the address bar and making sure a green lock symbol appears before entering their personal information into a site. Because scammers have been known to create HTTPS-protected phishing sites, which also display a green lock, it's also important to make sure this appears alongside a proper, intended URL—without any funny business preceding it.

In addition, people should add two-step authentication, an added layer of security that can help prevent account takeovers. Experts recommend using a dedicated security token as well.

A Google spokesperson acknowledged the scam in an email and directed Fortune to a statement:

We’re aware of this issue and continue to strengthen our defenses against it. We help protect users from phishing attacks in a variety of ways, including: machine learning based detection of phishing messages, Safe Browsing warnings that notify users of dangerous links in emails and browsers, preventing suspicious account sign-ins, and more. Users can also activate two-step verification for additional account protection.

Be on the lookout.

Partially reposted from Fortune.com 1/18/17:  https://www.blogger.com/blogger.gblogID=1213578672055534981&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=3708843725206120241

Collaborate More Easily with Google Docs Suggesting Feature

Suggest Edits in a Document

If you're reviewing a document and want to suggest changing some text, you can suggest edits to the owner of the document without affecting the original text. Your suggestions won't change the original text until the document owner approves them. Once you are in Suggesting mode, start typing to begin suggesting edits.

Suggest an edit in a document

You can propose a change to a document without directly editing the text by suggesting an edit. Suggestions can be viewed on Android devices, but can’t be added on mobile devices at this time.

1. Open the document.
2. In the top-right corner, make sure you are in Suggesting mode, which may also appear as a  icon.
   
   Ways to find Suggesting mode
   

   
3. To suggest an edit, simply begin typing where you think the edit should be made in the document. You can also select text and type alternative text to suggest replacing the original.
4. Your suggestions will appear in a new color and any text you suggest deleting or replacing will be crossed out.
5. Owners of the documents will receive an email with your suggestions and be able to accept or reject them.

Explain a suggested edit you’ve made

To give more detail about a suggested edit you’ve made:

1. Open the document where you made the suggestion.
2. Click your suggested edit and type your comment into the text box that appears.
3. Click Reply.

Difference between suggesting edits and commenting

Anyone with "Can comment" or "Can edit" access to a document can leave comments or suggest edits.

	Comments	Suggested edits
Instructions	Click the Comment button  in the toolbar	Switch to  Suggesting mode in the top-right
Use cases	Ask a question or make a note next to a specific section of existing text	Suggest new text that you recommend adding or changing in the document
Next steps	Owners can reply to your question or note, or click Resolve to close the comment	Owners can accept your suggestions to add as final text or reject the suggestions to erase them

Learn more about adding comments in documents.

Accept or reject a suggested edit in your document

2. 

3. 1. 
   2. 

Allow others to suggest edits in a document

When you share a document with someone, you can allow them to make comments and suggest edits without making direct changes to the document by giving them "Can comment" permissions.

1. Open the file you want to share.
2. In the top-right corner, click Share .
3. Add the email addresses for the people you want to share with in the text box.
4. Click the drop-down menu next to the text box and select "Can comment".
5. Click Done.

People who have permission to edit the document can also suggest edits by switching from  Editing to Suggesting mode in the top-right corner of a document.

Partially reposted from the Google Docs Editors Help site: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6033474?hl=en&ref_topic=1361461

Project to Standardize Crestron Control Units Enabling Backlight etc

We are ramping up a project to standardize the Crestron Control Units in our latest generation classrooms.  The updated layout will include:

• Standard button layout across classrooms
• Engraved Button Labels
• Backlit Button Labels
• Volume bars will light up when raising volume and turn off when lowering.

These changes will improve the client experience by making everything clear to see including actual volume level.

See before and after pictures below:

Before

After

Security Tips for Traveling at Home and Abroad

We all like to travel with our mobile devices (smartphones, laptops, or tablets) — whether it’s to the coffee shop around the corner or to a café in Paris. These devices make it easy for us to stay connected while on the go, but they can also store a lot of information — including contacts, photos, videos, location, and other personal and financial data — about ourselves and our friends and family. Following are some ways to protect yourself and others.

Before you go:

• If possible, do not take your work or personal devices with you on international trips. If you do, remove or encrypt any confidential data.
• For international travel, consider using temporary devices, such as an inexpensive laptop and a prepaid cell phone purchased specifically for travel. (For business travel, your employer may have specific policies about device use and traveling abroad.)
• Install a device finder or manager on your mobile device in case it is lost or stolen. Make sure it has remote wipe capabilities and that you know how to do a remote wipe.
• Ensure that any device with an operating system and software is fully patched and up-to-date with security software.
• Makes copies of your travel documents and any credit cards you’re taking with you. Leave the copies with a trusted friend, in case the items are lost or stolen.
• Keep prying eyes out! Use strong passwords, passcodes, or smart-phone touch ID to lock and protect your devices.
• Avoid posting social media announcements about your travel plans; such announcements make you an easy target for thieves. Wait until you’re home to post your photos or share details about your trip.

While you’re there:

• Physically protect yourself, your devices, and any identification documents (especially your passport).
• Don’t use an ATM unless you have no other option; instead, work with a teller inside the bank. If you must use an ATM, only do so during daylight hours and ask a friend to watch your back. Also check the ATM for any skimming devices, and use your hand to cover the number pad as you enter your PIN.
• It’s hard to resist sharing photos or telling friends and family about your adventures, but it’s best to wait to post about your trip on social media until you return home.
• Never use the computers available in public areas, hotel business centers, or cyber cafés since they may be loaded with keyloggers and malware. If you use a device belonging to other travelers, colleagues, or friends, do not log in to e-mail or any sensitive accounts.
• Be careful when using public wireless networks or Wi-Fi hotspots; they’re not secure, so anyone could potentially see what you’re doing on your computer or mobile device while you’re connected.
• Disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when not in use. Some stores and other locations search for devices with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enabled to track your movements when you’re within range.
• Keep your devices with you at all times during your travels. Do not assume they will be safe in your hotel room or in a hotel safe.

When you return:

• Change any and all passwords you may have used abroad.
• Run full antivirus scans on your devices.
• If you used a credit card while traveling, check your monthly statements for any discrepancies for at least one year after you return.
• If you downloaded any apps specifically for your trip and no longer need them, be sure to delete those apps and the associated data.
• Post all of your photos on social media and enjoy reliving the experience!

Wifi Hotspot Security tips:

Partially reposted from: http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2016/11/march-2017-security-tips-for-traveling-at-home-and-abroad

Google Hangouts temporarily won’t support phone and video calls on Mozilla Firefox

Last October, Mozilla Corporation announced that it would end support for browser plugins in its Firefox 52 release in order to ensure better browser performance, security and improved user experience. Because Google Hangouts in Firefox currently relies on browser plugins to enable video and audio calls, users of Hangouts will not be able to make audio or video calls in the upcoming Firefox 52 release. Google is actively working to develop a solution that will enable Hangouts to work in Firefox without a plugin. In the meantime, we recommend you take the following steps to minimize any future impact before the Firefox 52 release scheduled for March 7.

Recommended next steps
Using chat on Hangouts will continue to work for Firefox users; however, if you need to make phone or video calls from Hangouts, we encourage you and your employees to temporarily switch to one of the supported browsers below:

• Mozilla Firefox ESR: Download
• Google Chrome: Download
• Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE): Download
• Safari: Download

We will publish a follow-up announcement once we have a fix in place that will support Hangouts on Firefox again.

partially reposted from https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2017/02/google-hangouts-temporary-issues-with-firefox.html

Computer Lab Software Request Deadline for Fall 2017 is May 12, 2017

If you would like to request an upgrade of a software already installed in the computer labs or if you would like us to install a new software in the computer labs on campus, please fully read through the information on the link provided and fill out the Software Request form here. (click the big green box that says “Request Service”)

Note that software listed here is already slated to be installed, it is not necessary to submit requests for software, unless updating to a new version.

Please note that fully completed forms are required for any change to the labs, even for free software. All software installation media and licenses are also required by the due date.

Requests for the Fall 2017 semester should be submitted by May 12, 2017. Requests submitted after the deadline may not be installed in the labs for the Fall 2017 semester. This is because we need time to develop an installation procedure and test the software in the lab environment before deploying the software. We also require a number of weeks to deploy the lab images across campus, which means our solutions need to be complete and tested several weeks prior to classes beginning.

Please submit your Software Request forms ASAP.

UPDATE - ITS Spring Break Network Maintenance

UPDATE: The planned network maintenance for Spring Break has been completed. If you have any questions, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or at extension x-7973. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

ITS will be conducting planned network maintenance during the entirety of Spring Break, March 13-March 17, which will cause some localized network outages. We do this in order to take advantage of a time when there will be no classes and much fewer staff on campus.

In order to improve network reliability throughout campus, ITS will be conducting some upgrades on network equipment that services the campus. This network maintenance will affect both the wired and wireless networks. The Spring Break network maintenance schedule is below:

Monday, March 13th

• 8am-9am; All Dorm Residence Halls

Tuesday, March 14th

• 8am-9am; De LaSalle, Memorial and Hayden Halls

Wednesday, March 15th

• 8am-9am; Leo Engineering Building

Thursday, March 16th

• 8am-9am; O'Malley Library, Thomas, and Smith Halls

Friday, March 17th

• 8am-9am; Research and Learning Center (RLC), Kelly Commons, Draddy Gym, and Alumni Hall

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. If you have any questions, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or at extension x-7973

UPDATE: Planned Network Maintenance Thomas/Hayden Hall on 3/13

UPDATE: The planned network maintenance in Thomas and Hayden Halls has been completed. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

ITS will be conducting planned network maintenance in Thomas and Hayden Hall on March 13th between 630am and 7am.

In order to improve wireless reliability on upper campus, ITS will be conducting network maintenance at the above given time. This will only affect the wireless network in Thomas and Hayden Halls.

We apologize for this inconvenience. If you have any questions, please contact ITS at extension x-7973 or at its@manhattan.edu.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Outage Resolved

The AWS outage has been resolved, see below note from our ticketing system provider:

TeamDynamix Outgoing Email Outage Resolved

As of 10:59 PM ET all queued email has been processed and delivered. No emails were lost as a result of this outage, their delivery was simply delayed. We now consider this issue to be resolved.  We apologize for the inconvenience.   Sincerely, The TDX Team Links: https://status.aws.amazon.com/ https://twitter.com/awscloud