Excerpt from the Daily Bulletin:
“We are getting lots of questions,” says Eva Grabinski, a key figure in the Web Content Management System project that’s working to implement new software for maintaining UW’s hundreds of thousands of web pages. People “from areas across the university”, she says, are eager to know how they can start preparing to move their sites into the new web design and the new web content management system. To answer such questions, she’s put a blog posting online.

Description: main campus IP phone outage
Date: (YYYY-MM-DD) 2010-Mar-04
Start Time: 14:30

Submitted By: dwpayne@uwaterloo.ca

Comment: There was a short outage of VoIP telephones on the main campus this afternoon, due to accidental power-off of a UPS. Satellite campuses were unaffected. Power was restored quickly, and the device that lost power is now re-configured to use two different UPS sources, in an effort to prevent recurrences of the problem.

Notice Submitted: Thu Mar 4 15:14:52 EST 2010

Note: If you have any questions or concerns please contact the IST Help Desk at ext: 84357 or isthd@ist.uwaterloo.ca

We have recently been made aware of a malicious website that was intended to mimic the site of the Electrical & Computer Engineering department. The apparent purpose of the malicious site was to distribute malware to users, who would be tricked into visiting the site through emails sent by somebody pretending to be a staff or faculty member of the University of Waterloo. The domain name of this website was clearly intended to resemble that of the E&CE department.

The university is taking steps to take down this particular malicious site, but it is impossible to guess all possible permutations that an attacker might use.

Please pay close attention to emails sent that ask you to click a link, even if the emails are apparently from people associated with the university. It was noted that the emails contain phone numbers outside of the 519 area code that are not associated with UW.

Most departmental websites hosted by the university end with the domain name “uwaterloo.ca”. If you receive suspicious emails, please forward then to your local IT support personnel, and/or the IT Security Group at abuse@uwaterloo.ca.

STATA Data Analysis & Statistical Software is now available at a discounted price to
University of Waterloo students, staff & faculty!

Software is compatible with Windows, Mac & Unix on both 32 & 64 bit machines.

To order a copy for pickup at UW, contact StataCorp online at
www.stata.com/order/new/edu/gradplans/cgpcampus-order.html.

Be sure to include your @uwaterloo.ca email address when ordering.

Once your order is processed, you will be contacted by a StataCorp sales person with campus pick up times and location. Typically, orders are available for pickup within 2 or 3 business days after your order is placed.

StataCorp accepts payment only by credit card (Visa, Master Card, American Express or Discover).

Software is to be picked up in the CHIP (MC 1052). Upon receiving your order, you will have to pay an additional $10.00 administrative fee.

One of the Client Access Servers in Connect is failing to service Outlook Web Access requests properly.

We have routed all traffic through the other Client Access Server however entries in browser and DNS caches may result in users connecting to the ailing server (they will get “The page cannot be found” error 404 page) . Re-launching the web browser may help. Failing that, users can access web email by going to the Client Access Server directly at: http://connhub2.uwaterloo.ca.

Trevor Bain, IST

March-April SEW Courses:
See the brochure and calendar!
We are pleased to announce a new registration system for our workshops. The new registration system allows attendees to view spaces available in workshops, register online, and receive immediate registration notification via email.

The new registration system uses myHRinfo to register for courses through the Learning and Development module of the Self Service menu (where you view your payroll and benefit information).

Simply visit http://www.ohd.uwaterloo.ca/services/tech/ for a walkthrough on the new registration process.

The servers providing email services in the Exchange/Connect environment will have software updates and patches applied this week. These updates will take place between 11pm and 1am on Wednesday and Thursday evening (Feb 24, 25).

The updates are being scheduled to ensure that email services continue throughout, however, since the updates require system restarts, users may notice a momentary loss of connectivity as servers are restarted. Clients may be prompted to re-authenticate (login) if they have an active session on the server being patched. Anyone who leaves their Outlook client connected over night can expect to be prompted for login credentials in the morning.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact the IST Help Desk at ext: 84357 or helpdesk@ist.uwaterloo.ca

Drupal implementation
After careful consideration and review, it has been determined that Drupal (www.drupal.org) will be implemented as the centrally supported website creation and maintenance tool at UWaterloo. The decision to implement Drupal was made official on Feb 10, 2010 - as reflected in the revised Project Charter (PDF - IST website). If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding the implementation of Drupal please contact the project lead, Eva Grabinski (email: egrabins@uwaterloo.ca; phone: x.38956).

Project team update
There have been some changes to the all-star team. The team is comprised of core project team members and of consultants from around the University. Core project team members: Lara Babalola (Science), Daniel Delattre (Engineering), Donald Duff-McCracken (Environment), Guillermo Fuentes (Arts), Eva Grabinski (IST), Chris Gray (Library), Lauren Harrison (Housing & Residences), Adam Hewgill (Housing & Residences), Bob Hicks (IST), Pat Lafranier (IST), Tammy Marcinko (Human Resources), Isaac Morland (CSCF), Liam Morland (CEL, previously DCE), Sean Speers (Arts), Terry Stewart (AHS), Martin Timmerman (IST), Jeff Voskamp (IST). Consultants to the project: Glenn Anderson (IST), Linda Beaulieu (Engineering), Mary Lynn Benninger (Registrar’s), Michelle Douglas-Mills (AHS), Sarah Forgrave (CPA), Karen Jack (Secretariat), Rose Padacz (OPD), Susan Shifflett (OPD), Terry Labach (IST), Lisa Tomalty (IST), Evan Truong (IST), Heather Wey (IST), Jonathan Woodcock (Engineering).

Post comments and keep up to date at web.uwaterloo.ca!

Owners and administrators of lists run on lists.uwaterloo.ca should be aware of a recent phishing attack.

It will appear to be from
“lists.uwaterloo.ca Team”

and will ask you to apply settings from a zip file.

Please do not do as the mail asks.

Thanks,

Mike Patterson
IST IT Security Group

As usual, never reply to these emails. Delete them.
An example of this latest one:

From: University of Waterloo [mailto:helpdisk1@admmail.uwaterloo.ca]
Subject: Confirm Your myWaterloo Account To Avoid Closure

Dear Uwaterloo User,

This message is from Central IMAP Server messaging center to all email account owners.We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center and We are deleting all unused https://www.nexusmail.uwaterloo.ca/horde_3.3.5/ account to create more space for new accounts.
To prevent your account from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it’s a present used account.We are upgrading our systems to improve a way we interact with you and to provide you with an enhanced level of customer service.

CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW

* Username:
* Password:
* Date of Birth:
* Server:

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within 14 days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Thanks for your corporation

Central IMAP Server Warning Code:VX2G99AAJ.