NO UPDATES SCHEDULED - Preventing Phishing over the Holiday

ITS will NOT be performing updates over the Holiday break.  

ITS will NOT ASK for you to update your password or other personal information.

As we approach the Christmas Holiday break, ITS would like to remind campus users that we will NOT be performing updates and will NOT ASK for information from you.  Phishing attacks are on the rise and we are taking steps to prevent these attacks from affecting Manhattan College.

If you receive an email or other communication requesting personal information or asking you to update your password - DO NOT RESPOND.  These messages should be reported to ITS or the sending office for validation.

Below are some additional resources that were previously provided to the campus community:

Holiday Scams and Malware Campaigns

Phishing Infographics

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock

Unscheduled Microsoft Internet Explorer Patch Released

Typically Microsoft schedules patches to be released on either the second or fourth Tuesday of the month. Today, Microsoft released a patch due to an actively exploited security hole in Internet Explorer. Update your Windows computers, please.

For Windows 10, Windows Update is found within Settings.

For Windows 7 & 8, open Control Panel and select Windows Update.

Temporary Electrical Shutdown Leo Hall 12/20 at 530am

ITS has been made aware by Physical Plant of a short partial electrical shutdown in Leo Hall on Thursday, December 20, 2018 from 530am to 730am.

Leo 3rd and 4th floors will be impacted. This electrical shutdown may cause the network, both wired and wireless, to be down on these floors as well. Other parts of the building should not be affected.

Although Physical Plant does expect to be completed before 07:30, occupants should not plan on being in the building on floors 3 and 4 before 07:30. As a precaution, we suggest that computers, printers, and sensitive electrical equipment that can be shut off be turned off in advance of the shutdown. Physical Plant and ITS are aware that there are intersession classes in the building, however, Physical Plant does not expect to have any issue having power restored in advance of those classes.

If you have any questions, please contact ITS at extension x-7973 or via email its@manhattan.edu. Thank you  and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Windows 8.1 End of Life Schedule

Every Windows product has a life cycle. The life cycle begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported. Knowing key dates in this life cycle helps you make informed decisions about when to update, upgrade or make other changes to your software. 

Windows 8.1 Mainstream support will end January 9, 2018
Windows 8.1 Extended support will end January 10, 2023

Microsoft Support Reference to determine: Which Windows operating system am I running?

Solution

Manhattan College ITS loads Windows 10 on all ITS supported compatible devices.

Next Steps

If you happen to have a computer with Windows 8.1 please upgrade your computer to Windows 10 before January 9, 2018.  You can contact ITS for assistance.

• Email: its@manhattan.edu
• Call: 718-862-7973

Further details:  Microsoft Support Windows LifeCycle Fact Sheet.

Windows 8.1 End of Life Schedule KBA.

Get Started with Bots!

Hangouts Chat makes it easy for teams to be able to get their work done in one place. From direct messages to group conversations, Chat helps teams collaborate easily and efficiently. With dedicated, virtual rooms to house projects over time — plus threaded conversations — Chat makes it simple to track progress and follow up tasks.

Google's Bots are special accounts you can chat with, just as you would with people. Bots provide a conversational way for you to connect to services in Hangouts Chat, such as looking up information, scheduling meetings, performing tasks and so on.

From your Google Chat Dashboard, Navigate to the: Find Person, room, or bot section in the top left corner, then select: Message a Bot. That will show a number of popular bots where you can search through. 

Bots are created by software developers and added to Hangouts Chat by Google. Every Hangouts Chat user can use bots, including the @meet bot.

Google Hangouts Chat isn't just for talking to people - it's also a great place to chat with your bots, too. They can help you book meetings, find flights, poll your team, check your calendar and much more - they are very interactive and powerful.

In Hangouts Chat, you can add bots to a specific room, or you can chat with them directly on your own. There are bots already built for Hangouts Chat today, including Meet, Drive, Giphy and more. 
The Drive bot will update you about new comments, access request, files share with you and your storage. The Giphy bot will insert GIF's directly into your chat room.
The Summarize bot can extract the most important information, keywords and key phrases from:
• weblinks and documents - just share your link with the bot or copy-paste your text • audio files • images with text.

You can ask the Meet bot to check your calendar or book a meeting with someone else on your team or in your organization.

Review Use @meet bot for instructions on how to use a bot to set up a meeting.

For help in getting started with Hangouts Chat please contact: ITS@manhattan.edu or TEL: 718-862-7973

Google for Education Roadshow on campus Dec 8

Representatives from Google’s Higher Ed team were in Kelly Commons on Saturday, Dec 8 and presented to adjunct faculty about the best use of Google Apps for:

Workflow Optimization:  Google Calendar, Classroom & Course Kit

Communication:  Gmail, Google Chat & Google Meet

Collaboration & Teamwork:  Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive & Jamboard

Immersive Learning:  Tour Creator (allows you to make your own Virtual Reality tours)

Google representatives taught the group tips and techniques which enable us to use Google more efficiently. This event was sponsored by the Faculty Technology Committee whose focus is on adjunct technology support. 15 adjuncts attended along with Graduate students. It was a productive and informative workshop, specifically targeting higher education instructors. Attendees left with a variety of ideas of how they can use technology more productively and how to enhance their current teaching methods by blending technology into their current content.

Special thanks to Dr Adam Koehler, Chair of the Faculty Development Committee and Dr Shawna BuShell, Chair of the Faculty Technology Committee for co-sponsoring this event and bringing Google to Manhattan College.

Please contact its@manhattan.edu for additional resources on blending more technology into your courses using Google Apps.

Drive Plug-in for Microsoft Office

The Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office allows users working in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to open documents directly from Google Drive, and save to Google Drive, without leaving their Office programs.
To use the Drive plug-in it must be installed on your computer. Download the Google Drive plug-in.

The following versions of Microsoft Office are supported:

Office 2010, 2013, and 2016 for Windows.
The following Microsoft Office programs are supported:
Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. 
Google will not support Office for Mac:
Mac and Windows clients can also access or save their Office files through Google Drive File Stream. Please visit the previous link for further details on how to download. 

For more details please review:  Install the Drive Plug-in for Microsoft Office.

Mail Merges Made Easy

formMule is an add-on for Google Sheets that allows you to easily and quickly send mail merges. Mail merging makes emailing many recipients easier by utilizing tags, which takes data from a spreadsheet and uses that to organize and send personalized emails to multiple recipients. 

formMule sends targeted, personalized emails from a Google Sheet. Run as either a manual email merge or -- more powerfully -- as a triggered merge that runs automatically on form submit or on a timer. 

A great way to use formMule is when you are gathering responses in a Google Form, and later on, you want to email everyone who signed up using your form. Create a spreadsheet from the responses. Make sure to collect their email addresses!

For more instructions, including a video tutorial please refer to Mail Merging using formMule.

COMPLETE: Campus Wireless Maintenance - 12/4 at 6am

UPDATE: As of 6:15am, this maintenance was completed successfully.

ITS will be conducting necessary maintenance on part of the wireless network on campus on Tuesday, Dec 4th, 2018 at 6:00am. This maintenance is required to ensure the scalability and reliability of our wireless network throughout campus.

This maintenance will not affect the wired networks throughout campus nor will it affect the wireless networks in the following locations:

• Horan Hall
• Lee Hall
• Chrysostom Hall
• Miguel Hall
• Memorial Hall
• DLS
• Kelly Commons
• Draddy Gymnasium
• O'Malley Library

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

Kramer & Multihead Installation Project

ITS tested out two new products during the Fall '18 semester. One is a new wireless presentation device called Kramer VIA Go and the other is a Crestron Multihead cable. We installed them in (15) classrooms and (1) conference room.

Due to positive survey feedback and general success with the products we have decided to move forward and replace all currently installed Apple TVs on campus with the Kramer VIA Go wireless presentation device. It has much more functionality than the Apple TV such as supporting all platforms (Android, Chrome OS, iOS, Mac and Windows) as well as being more reliable and other benefits. We have also decided to install the Crestron Multihead cable in all rooms with a Crestron control unit.

The installations are scheduled to begin this coming Winter Intersession '18-'19. We will be providing updates via the blog so be sure to keep an eye on upcoming posts.

Kramer Via GO Home Screen

Crestron Multihead Cable

Congratulations to IT Services Rich Musal on his Distinguished Lasallian Administrator Award

We are so proud the efforts of Rich Musal, Director of Client Services and Operations, have been recognized.  Rich exemplifies with distinction the Lasallian Hallmarks that inspire the Mission of Manhattan College.  

Nominated and selected by his colleagues, Rich was awarded this year's Distinguished Lasallian Administrator at the Nov. 27 Administrator/Staff Convocation.

The principles of this award exemplify individuals among us who: 

• are committed to excellence in the fulfillment of their responsibilities
• demonstrate the utmost of respect for the dignity of others
• manifest their faith in God through their actions and relationships
• make evident that integrity and trustworthiness matter
• seek to make right things that are harmful to others



Rich Musal, (center) with President O'Donnell (far left) on the altar in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers

The new Gmail is here with several new features

New features on the latest revision of Gmail

Gmail, got a much-awaited design refresh. However, design is not the only thing new in the "new" Gmail; a ton of functionality has been added to both the web as well as the mobile interface. These include several Artificial Intelligence-based features including Smart Reply, email snoozing, and nudging recipients to respond. 

Let's have a look at some of the features in detail.

1. Quickly take action on your messages

Organize emails from your inbox

• Archive 
• Delete 
• Mark as unread  or read 
• Snooze 

Snooze emails until later

Postpone emails to a future date or time that's more convenient for you. Learn how to snooze emails.

Respond to emails with Smart Reply suggestions

2. Customize your inbox view

Expand or shrink your inbox

Change how spacious or compact you want your inbox view. 

In the top right, click Settings  Display density.

Show or hide the menu

To make room for previewing your email, you can expand or shrink your inbox view by clicking Menu .

View Calendar, Tasks, Keep & Add-ons

On the right of your inbox, click these icons:

• Calendar : View your daily schedule, click events to edit them, create new events, and jump to upcoming events.
• Keep : Create checklists and take notes.
• Tasks : Add to-do's and deadlines.
• Add-ons : Get extra Gmail tools to help manage your mail.

Learn how to use Calendar, Keep, Tasks, and Add-ons with Gmail.

For further details please review Learn what's new in Gmail

Partially reposted from: Learn what's new in Gmail

Tips and Techniques Aimed at Improving Video Conferences

ITS has created resources aimed at improving Video Conference experiences or Google (Hangouts) Meet.

Review video and Knowledge Base Articles which outline Tips and Techniques to use for better video conferences:

Troubleshooting Video Conferences
Best Practices for Video Conferences

partially reposted from:  A Video Conference Call in Real Life:  

Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock

Many information security tip guides include a "look for the padlock" to find legitimate websites. We now live in a world where half of all phishing websites have the padlock in the browser's location bar! This is according to a Brian Krebs report that references to new PhishLabs data.

There has always been confusion over what the padlock means. It never meant that the website was legitimate. It meant that the owner paid money to a Certificate Authority to validate a keypair such that certain traffic is encrypted between a computer and the website. Over the past few years, the cost of this validation process has decreased greatly.

The following quote is from the Krebs article and summarizes the meaning of the padlock.

"The presence of the padlock does not mean the site is legitimate, nor is it any proof the site has been security-hardened against intrusion from hackers."

Be very careful with links you receive. Cyber Monday is a great chance for malicious people to trick you.

Get Started with Hangouts Chat: A Messaging Platform Built for Teams

Hangouts Chat

A messaging platform built for teams

• Hangouts Chat makes it easy for teams to be able to get their work done in one place. From direct messages to group conversations, Chat helps teams collaborate easily and efficiently. With dedicated, virtual rooms to house projects over time — plus threaded conversations — Chat makes it simple to track progress and follow up tasks. Chat currently supports 28 languages and each room can support up to 8,000 members.

Hangouts Chat is Deeply Integrated with G Suite:

Easily upload items from Drive, Collaborate on Docs, Sheets or Slides, join online meetings with Hangouts Meet.

Get started right away with Hangouts Chat. 

For more information please visit @ Hangouts Chat.

Partially reposted from @ Hangouts Chat.

Emergency Maintenance Friday November 23 7am-1pm

ITS will be performing emergency maintenance on critical network equipment Friday November 23 from 7am to 1pm.

There will be sporadic outages during this time.

RESOLVED Authentication Outage

RESOLVED: ITS was able to find the cause and correct the issue.

Information Technology Service has been made aware of an authentication issue on campus. ITS is currently investigating the cause of this issue.

We  apologize for this inconvenience.

Holiday Scams and Malware Campaigns

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As the holidays approach, The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, (NCCIC) reminds users to be aware of seasonal scams and malware campaigns. Users should be cautious of unsolicited emails that contain malicious links or attachments with malware, advertisements infected with malware, and requests for donations from fraudulent charitable organizations, which could result in security breaches, identify theft, or financial loss.

NCCIC recommends the following actions:

• Use caution when browsing the internet, shopping online, and using email.
• Avoid clicking on links or opening attachments in unsolicited emails. See Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks for more information.
• Be wary of fraudulent social media pleas, calls, texts, websites, and door-to-door solicitations for donations to charities. See How to Donate Wisely and Avoid Charity Scams for more information.

If you believe you are a victim of a scam or malware campaign, consider the following actions:

• Contact your financial institution immediately, and close any accounts that may have been compromised. Watch for any unexplainable charges to your account. See Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft for more information.
• Immediately change any passwords you might have revealed. Avoid reusing passwords. See Choosing and Protecting Passwords for more information.
• Report the attack to the police, and file reports with the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Partially reposted from: US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team) Holiday Scams and Malware Campaigns

ITS Customer Satisfaction Survey

Please take a moment to fill out the semesterly ITS Customer Satisfaction Survey.  Please try to think only of your experience with ITS for the Fall 2018 semester. Here is a link to the customer satisfaction survey.

Thank you for your feedback.

Microsoft Office 365 Outage

Microsoft Office 365 is experiencing an outage for all users with multi-factor authorization. Check the Microsoft Office 365 status web page for updates.

The current status report as of this blog's publication.

Today, Life IS a game!

Our IT friends at Texas A&M University have shared an online game, "Aggie LIFE," to enhance cybersecurity skills on campus.  Their Division of Information Technology creates an online game each October in recognition of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. 

This year's game, tested players' knowledge on phishing, online shopping, identity theft and more.

Partially reposted from Thousands Test Cybersecurity Skills with Aggie LIFE

Invite people to an ongoing Hangouts Meet meeting

Google is adding a new way to invite people to an ongoing meeting directly within Hangouts Meet. When you’re in a Meet meeting, you’ll now see an option to “Add people” at the top of the participant list.

Add people directly from the call

Clicking on this option will open a dialog box to send them an email invite to join as a full participant or call them into the meeting by phone.

To invite someone into your meeting, simply input their email address or lookup by name from the company directory.The invited participant will receive an email with instructions to join your meeting.

Enter the person's name, email address, or phone number

As always, inviting someone using their phone number will immediately call the phone number to to add them to the meeting. They will join as an audio only participant and will not see any video or the screenshare.

For more information on inviting people to Meet meetings, check out the Help Center.

Manhattan College has video conferencing set up with Google Hangouts Meet in the following rooms:
De La Salle Hall:    Room 209
Memorial Hall:       Charter Room

Please consult 25Live to book these rooms for your video conference.

Note you don't have to be in these rooms to hold or participate in a video meeting. You can initiate or participate in a video meeting  from your desktop/laptop/mobile device meet app.(Hangouts Meet.)



More Information:
Help Center: Invite people, Best Practices for Video Conferences, Google Hangouts

Partially reposted from:  Invite people to an ongoing Hangouts Meet meeting

CANCELLED: MCS, ProDev, and LMSCourseDev Moodle Maintenance - Saturday 11/17 8AM

11/16 3:30pm Update: This maintenance will be on hold until the new features are tested further. New date will be announced soon.

Cancelled: MCS, ProDev, and LMSCourseDev Moodle systems will be OFFLINE for system maintenance starting at 8AM on Saturday 11/17 to apply system updates. We anticipate that the maintenance will be completed between 8AM-10AM during which time only these Moodle systems will be unavailable. 

The main Moodle system (lms.manhattan.edu) will not be affected.

Tips for Shopping Safely Online - Even on Black Friday!

Tips for Shopping Safely Online

In 2016, for the first time ever, shoppers bought more online than in stores. All Internet-connected devices are vulnerable, especially when being used for purchases. You need to be aware of ways to protect yourself as you shop online.

The holiday season is the perfect time for cybercriminals to take advantage of unsuspecting online shoppers. When you go to the grocery store or local shop, it's habit to grab your reusable bags, lock the car, and make sure you've safely put away your credit card or cash before heading home with the day's purchases. Similar precautions need to be taken when you're shopping online from the comfort of your own home. If you make these simple precautions regular online shopping habits, you'll be protecting your purchases and personal information.

The National Cyber Security Alliance recommends following these basic steps so you'll be ready to cybershop safely and securely.

• Lock down your login. One of the most critical things you can do in preparation for the online shopping season is to fortify your online accounts by enabling the strongest authentication tools available, such as biometrics, security keys or a unique one-time code through an app on your mobile device, lastpass.com is a recommended site.  Your usernames and passwords are not enough to protect key accounts like e-mail, banking, and social media.
• Keep clean machines. Before searching for that perfect gift, be sure that all web-connected devices—including PCs, mobile phones, smartphones, and tablets—are free from malware and infections by running only the most current versions of software and apps. Please review this Manhattan College Knowledge Base Article:  Basic Malware Removal.
• Shop reliable websites online. Use the sites of retailers you trust. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
• Conduct research. When using a new website for your holiday purchases, read reviews and see if other customers have had a positive or negative experience with the site.
• Personal information is like money: value it and protect it. When making a purchase online, be alert to the kinds of information being collected to complete the transaction. Make sure you think it is necessary for the vendor to request that information. Remember that you only need to fill out required fields at checkout.
• Get savvy about Wi-Fi hotspots. If you are out and about, limit the type of business you conduct over open public Wi-Fi connections, including logging in to key accounts, such as e-mail and banking. Adjust the security settings on your device to limit who can access your phone. 
• Check the address bar. Look for the green lock icon and https:// in the URL before using your credit card online.
• Manhattan College has the following information available for additional support on personally owned devices:  Resources for Personal Devices

Partially re posted from: November 2018: Shop Safe Online, Even on Black Friday!

Phishing Infographics

Let's all review the following phishing infographics and share them. The holiday season is a good time to discuss information security with family & friends.

The above infographic is from Wombat Security.

The above infographic is from Rapid7.

The first infographic shows a flow chart of the decision process that we should all do our best to follow.  The second scrutinizes an email, which we should consider. Remember that phishing attacks can also use SMS, social media, etc.

Electrical Maintenance Leo Hall November 13th/14th from 6am-8am

There will be some electrical maintenance being conducted in Leo Hall 3rd Floor on Tuesday November 13th and Wednesday, November 14th, from 6am-8am.

This maintenance will shut power off to the networking equipment that services both the wired and wireless networks on the 3rd floor of Leo Hall. No other floors should be impacted by this maintenance.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Manhattan College enhances student and faculty support with Google Cloud

Check out the below video where ITS Leadership discusses how Manhattan College ITS utilizes the Google Cloud platform.

Featuring:
Jake Holmquist, CIO
Cindy Duggan, Director of Web Applications
Robert Moran, Director of Enterprise Architecture

RESOLVED: Banner: Slow Response Time

Dear Manhattan College Community,

UPDATE: The root cause was isolated to the BANNER Admin Pages.  Once a "restart" was conducted on the Banner Admin Pages, the system's response time was back to normal.
Thanks for your patience.

Information Technology Services



Information Technology Services has received several reports regarding slow network response time.  The ITS Network Team is in the process of identifying the cause and will update the community once the issue is resolved.

Thank you for your patience.

Information Technology Services

Campus Wireless Upgrade

We, here at Manhattan College IT Services Department, strive to meet the growing demand for wireless accessibility. We do our best to be at the forefront of technology throughout campus. Our goal is to provide students, faculty, and staff with the best tools to facilitate learning. This includes updated computer labs, learning classrooms, and wireless throughout all buildings, both academic and dorm rooms. One way we are meeting this goal is to deploy a robust wireless network providing enough reliability and stability throughout campus.

The Networking Department within ITS will be working diligently to upgrade all wireless access points across campus starting the week of November 12th. We will complete this work with as little down time as possible, but please be patient as some down time may be inevitable. The upgrade process will be completed in the following order. Please note, this may be subject to change based off of building, classroom, and office availability:

• Hayden Hall - Complete
• Thomas Hall - Complete
• Alumni Hall - Complete
• Leo Engineering Building - Complete
• Research and Learning Center - Complete
• De La Salle Hall - Complete
• Memorial Hall - Complete
• Miguel Hall - Complete
• Smith Hall - Complete
• O'Malley Library - In Progress
• Kelly Student Commons - Complete
• Gaelic Park Athletic Center (former Mahan) - Complete

We will be working closely with Resident Life to upgrade the wireless access points in the dorms. Most of the access points are located in students' rooms, so in order to upgrade, we will need access to these rooms. Work in the dorms will commence during winter break according to the following tentative schedule:

• Overlook Manor - Complete
• Jasper Hall - Complete
• Horan Hall - In Progress
• Chrysostom Hall - Complete
• Lee Hall

With the cooperation of the Manhattan College community, IT Services hopes to meet our goal of making seamless wireless connectivity the goal throughout campus.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or at extension x-7973.

-Network Engineer, ITS