Sunday, March 31, 2019

Week 6 Tech Showcase - Lynda.com

Lynda.com


Lynda.com is a website where you have access to a plethora of online courses that can be taken any time, and at your own pace. The courses provided by lynda.com spans many different topics, and is really useful for learning any topic.

While lynda.com requires that you have a membership with them to access their course materials, anyone with a NYC Public Library Card can register for free. This includes the Manhattan College community which can register for a free NYC Public Library Card.

Image result for lynda.com


Additional Resources:
Applying for a New York Public Library Card
Accessing Lynda.com with a New York Public Library Card

We are interested in your feedback, please take a few moments to complete the following Lynda.com survey:

Friday, March 29, 2019

Gift Card Scam

A common phishing scam is to target associates or subordinates.  The initial message is a short question, intending for a quick reply.

Are you on campus?

Eventually each respondent is requested to purchase an online gift card.

Earlier this year, a higher education point of view news report of this was published. It reports on multiple accounts of superiors being impersonated.  It is humorous while also showcasing the premise of this scam, which is that those in power could abuse their power and that subordinates are pressured to gain favor.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Imagination, Inquiry and Innovation Institute (I-4)

Manhattan College and the Maxine Greene Institute will co-sponsor the fifth annual: Imagination, Inquiry and Innovation Institute (I-4). The theme of the 2019 event is: "Look Again: The Art of Multiple Perspectives."
This is an opportunity for presenter to share innovative work in a broad range of fields: fine and performing arts, media and communication specialists, humanities, education, sciences, technology, engineering, medicine, health care, and business.
IT Services Department Training Team:  Alberto DeAngelis and Anita McCarthy will be presenting a poster session on Digital Accessibility.

The event will be held in Kelly Commons, 5th floor
From 9:00am-4:30pm on Saturday, March 30, 2019.


Monday, March 25, 2019

Week 5 Tech Showcase - Google Jamboard


Google Jamboard


people using jamboard to collaborate

Jamboard is a new collaborative tool by Google that promotes wireless collaboration. It utilizes a 55” touchscreen that allows students on campus to collaborate with classmates.  It can be used with mobile devices to supplement collaboration with features such as Google Drive. Jamboard allows people across the world to collaborate using either another Jamboard or the Jamboard app downloaded on their mobile devices. A Jamboard can be found in O'Malley Library Room 401. Supplemental Instruction sessions are now held using Jamboards by the Center for Academic Success.


Additional Resources for more information and instructions:

Please take this brief Jamboard Survey to let us know what you think about the Google Jamboard:

Friday, March 22, 2019

Phishing quiz

It is Spring Break! It is Friday! But that's meaningless to the phishing criminals around the world. Another day, another phish.

Google and Jigsaw have developed a phishing quiz, which everyone should take. Only eight emails are posed and you have to determine if they are legitimate or not. Go, go, go!

Monday, March 18, 2019

Week 4 Tech Showcase -Mail Merges Made Easy Using formMule

formMule

formMule  is a free addon for Google Sheets that allows you to easily send mail merges. It utilizes tags which gathers data such as email lists and names and uses that to send a personalized or tagged emails.
It is a powerful tool that provides you with the ability to:
  • use auto-insert merge tags with the click of a button, making template-creation a breeze!
  • use up to 10 different email templates based on specified send conditions.
  • create unique case numbers on form submit for use in keying follow-ups
  • grab and send form response edit URLs, and formulas copied down on form submit
  • use custom spreadsheet functions RANGETOTABLE and RANGETOVERTICALTABLE which make it possible to merge tables of multiple, matching records into email bodies.

Another powerful application of formMule is to mail merge Google Form responses.


Please watch this video for additional help getting started with formMule:


For more information on formMule and how detailed instructions on how to use it, please visit this Knowledge Base Article on Mail Merging using formMule.

Please take this brief formMule for Mail Merges Survey to let us know what you think about formMule.

If you have additional questions about how to use formMule for mail merges please contact IT Services:
ITS@manhattan.edu or TEL: 718-862-7973

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Horan Hall - Brief Network Outage 3/18 at 1:30pm

Physical Plant will be conducting a generator test in Horan Hall Monday, March 18th at approximately 1:30pm. 

There will be two brief outages, one while switching to generator power, the other while switching back to main power.

This will not affect the rest of campus.

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

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

ITS Spring Break Network and System Maintenance

ITS will be conducting planned network maintenance during the Spring Break, March 18-March 20th, 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 and stability 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 18th
  • 7am-8am: Upgrading equipment in RLC that services core servers. Wired and wireless throughout campus may be affected during this maintenance period.
  • 8am-9am: Equipment in Hayden Hall will be updated causing both wired and wireless networks to go down in Hayden and Miguel Halls as well as Physical Plant in the Garage.
Tuesday, March 19th
  • 7am-8am: The main networking equipment in Thomas Hall will be upgraded causing wireless and wired networks to go down in both Thomas and Smith Halls.
  • 7am-8am: Replacing and upgrading firewall equipment. This may cause sporadic outages across campus throughout the maintenance period.
Wednesday, March 20th
  • 6am-9am: ITS will be working on equipment in our Co-Location in Manhattan. This equipment services our core networking equipment and will cause our primary Internet connection to campus to go down during the maintenance period. Our Internet connection will be routed to a backup service during this time. There may be brief network outages on campus and Internet connections may be slow throughout this maintenance period.
Thursday, March 21st
  • 7am-9am: The Manhattan College Moodle system will be offline for system maintenance starting at 7am to apply system updates. We anticipate that the maintenance will be completed between 7am-9am during which Moodle system could experience outages and be unavailable.

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

Take Control of Your Personal Info to Help Prevent Identity Theft

Identity theft has become a fact of life during the past decade. If you are reading this, it is a safe bet that your data has been breached in at least one incident. Does that mean we are all helpless? Thankfully, no. There is a lot we can do to protect ourselves from identity theft and to make recovery from cyber incidents quicker and less painful.
First, take control of your credit reports. Examine your own report at each of the "big three" bureaus. You get one free report from each credit bureau once per year. You can request them by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. Make sure there's nothing inaccurate in those reports, and file for correction if needed. Then initiate a credit freeze at each of those plus two other smaller ones. Instructions can be found at Krebs on Security. To keep an eye on your credit report all year, space out your credit bureau requests by requesting a report from a different credit bureau every four months.
Next, practice good digital hygiene. Just as you lock your front door when you leave home and your car when you park it, make sure your digital world is secured. This means:
  1. Keep your operating system up to date. When OS updates are released, they fix errors in the code that could let the bad guys in.
  2. Do the same for the application software you use. Web browsers, plug-ins, email clients, office software, antivirus/anti-malware, and every other type of software has flaws. When those flaws are fixed, you are in a race to install that fix before someone uses the flaw against you. The vast majority of hacks leverage vulnerabilities that have a fix already available.
  3. Engage your brain. Think before you click. Think before you disclose personal information in a web form or over the phone.
  4. Think before you share on social media sites. Some of those fun-to-share-with-your-friends quizzes and games ask questions that have a disturbing similarity to "security questions" that can be used to recover your account. Do you want the answers to your security questions to be published to the world?
  5. Use a password manager and keep a strong, unique password for every site or service you use. That way a breach on one site won't open you up to fraud at other sites.
  6. Back. It. Up. What do you do if you are hit with a ransomware attack? (Or a run-of-the-mill disk failure?) If you have a recent off-line backup, your data are safe, and you can recover without even thinking about paying a ransom.
  7. Full disk encryption is your friend. If your device is stolen, it will be a lot harder for a thief to access your data, which means you can sleep at night.
  8. Check all your accounts statements regularly. Paperless statements are convenient in the digital age. But it is easy to forget to check infrequently used accounts such as a health savings account. Make a recurring calendar reminder to check every account for activity that you don't recognize.
  9. Manage those old-style paper statements. Don't just throw them in the trash or the recycle bin. Shred them with a cross-cut shredder. Or burn them. Or do both. Data stolen from a dumpster are just as useful as data stolen from a website.
If you've been a victim of identity theft:
  • Create an Identity Theft Report by filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission online (or call 1-877-438-4338).
  • Use the Identity Theft Report to file a police report. Make sure you keep a copy of the police report in a safe place.
  • Flag your credit reports by contacting the fraud departments of any one of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax (800-685-1111); TransUnion (888-909-8872); or Experian (888-397-3742).
  • Check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach have i been pwned?

Monday, March 11, 2019

Week 3 Tech Showcase - Wireless Printing with Web Print

Web Print


Image result for web print manhattan college

Web Print is a useful feature on campus that allows you to wirelessly print to the computer labs from anywhere on campus. For example, if all the computers are taken and you need to print something quickly, Web Print will allow you to use your laptop to send a print job and pick it up at the printer of your choice. Note that you must first convert your document to a PDF to submit it to be printed.

You can find Web Print by searching "Web Print" in Quick Links.

Additional resources:
Converting Google App files to PDF
Printing wirelessly at Manhattan College using Web Print


Please take this brief Web Print survey to let us know what you think about Web Print.

If you have additional questions about how to use the Web Print please contact IT Services:
ITS@manhattan.edu or TEL: 718-862-7973

Friday, March 8, 2019

COMPLETE: Leo Power Shut Down 3/9/2019

UPDATE: As of 4:30pm on Saturday, 3/9/2019, the power shut down was completed and power was restored back to the Leo Building. All wired and wireless for both Leo Engineering and the old Mahan (GPAC) building has been restored.

There will be a building wide power shutdown in Leo Engineering building on March 9th, 2019 in order to work on the building's fire alarm system. The power shutdown should begin around 8am and last roughly 4 hours.

This will cause both the wired and wireless networks in Leo Engineering and the old Mahan (GPAC) building to go down for the entire duration of the power shutdown.

We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Monday, March 4, 2019

Week 2 Tech Showcase - Crestron Multihead Dongle

Multihead Dongle

Have you ever been to a classroom that has a cable type your laptop does not support? With the new Crestron Multihead dongle, podiums equipped with the Crestron Control units will now support these four connections:
  • USB Type C
  • Mini Display Port
  • Display Port
  • HDMI
Photo of Crestron Multihead Dongle
Crestron Mulithead Dongle

These Multihead dongle contain all four of these connections on a single cable, meaning you just connect whichever connection your device supports. With the addition of the new Kramer VIA GO wireless presentation systems installed all over campus, the presentation possibilities are endless.

This guide highlights the podium guide which explains the classroom technology that makes use of the Multihead dongle. (Scroll down to view the podium guide with the multihead cable.)


Please take this brief Crestron Multihead Dongle Survey to let us know what you think about the new Multihead dongle.

If you have additional questions about how to use the new Crestron Multihead Dongle please contact IT Services:
ITS@manhattan.edu or TEL: 718-862-7973