April 13, 2012

Current Email Issue

We are experiencing issues with email that is going off campus this morning. A compromised machine on campus was sending massive spam through our email system and Microsoft has shut down our outgoing mail service. As soon as we were notified, we took the compromised machine off line and began actively working with Microsoft to restore service. Service to outside email addresses was restored about 11 am.

 

Macs DO Get Viruses!

This week, there were several computers at UTK were attacked by the Flashback.K Trojan which is exploiting a vulnerability in the Apple Operating System. Apple released an update address this vulnerability last week, but many computers were already infected.

 

As we identify these computers on the UTK network, OIT will be contacting the owner of the computer to inform them of the infection. Because your credentials may have been compromised, one of the first steps you should take is to immediately change ALL online user names and passwords using a different computer. To complete the process you must clean the Trojan with antivirus software and install all operating system and Java patches. ClamXav is the recommended antivirus software for Macs and it will clean this infection.

 

If you have any questions or would like assistance cleaning an infected computer, please contact the OIT HelpDesk at (865) 974-9900 or online at http://help.utk.edu

 

Online@UT (Blackboard) - - Doing Our Part

On behalf of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment, when instructors and students log on to Blackboard, they will see a reminder announcement to complete the Spring 2012 Semester Online Evaluations. This announcement will remain available until the evaluation period ends on April 30th at midnight. Elizabeth Pemberton, SAIS Coordinator, was thrilled to hear from the members of the Online@UT team with the offer to help market the evaluation link and stated, "Getting the link to the SAIS site in as many places as possible really helped us boost our response rates last semester." This is the second semester in a row that Online@UT has joined with OIRA in promoting the new online student evaluation system.

 

Featured Software: Scientific Notebook

Scientific Notebook 5.5, developed by MacKichan Software, is a mathematical and scientific word processor that integrates mathematical input, computation and plotting. The program has all the features of other text editors plus features that ease data entry. Using Scientific Notebook, text appears on the same screen as mathematics, which you create using familiar mathematical notation instead of special codes. Using the program templates or templates that you build, you can construct homework, lab reports, exams and syllabi. Your documents can be exported to Rich Text Format and then viewed in Microsoft Word and Word's Equation Editor add-in is not required.

 

Scientific Notebook contains a built-in Exam Builder for constructing interactive exams and is fully functional with the integrated MuPAD computer algebra computational engine. For a list of features, go to http://www.mackichan.com and select Scientific Notebook.

 

The Scientific Notebook license permits use by students, faculty and staff at all University of Tennessee campuses that have access to the UTK terminal server at http://apps.utk.edu. For more information, go to http://oit.utk.edu/software/.

 

Workshops for April 16-20, 2012

Instructor-focused:

Turning Point Clicker Technology, Thu., Apr. 19, 1:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m.

Researcher-focused:

Utilizing the UT Google Search Appliance, Fri., Apr. 20, 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

 

All workshops meet on the Knoxville campus. Registration is required for all workshops. To register for a workshop go to: http://oit.utk.edu/training/. If you have questions or need help with registration for any of the workshops listed above, contact the OIT HelpDesk at http://help.utk.edu, or 974-9900.

 

Computer Security: Check for Encryption…

Credit card and online banking sites are convenient and easy ways to purchase and handle financial transactions. They are also the most frequently spoofed or "faked" sites for phishing scams. Information you provide to online banking and shopping sites should be encrypted and the site's URL should begin with https. Some browsers have an icon representing a lock at the lower right of the browser window. For more information about phishing, please visit http://www.onguardonline.gov/phishing.html

 

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