2014 or older

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Police issue precautionary warning over bomb threat

posted Nov 7, 2014, 12:06 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:18 PM ]

UC Davis received a phoned bomb threat to the campus at approximately 10.25 a.m. this morning, Nov. 7. No specific location was given and no credible threat has been determined.

As a precaution, police issued a "WarnMe" notification to the campus community. No evacuations are required. Be aware of your surroundings, and report any suspicious objects to police at 530 754-2677.

Additional information: UC Davis Police Department


This message is posted because the Systems Support Group (SSG) received questions about the legitimacy of emails sent out by the Warn Me system. You can find out more about the Warn Me system at: https://warnme.ucdavis.edu/

Windows XP is no longer safe enough to use

posted Nov 7, 2014, 12:01 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:20 PM ]

Microsoft stopped maintaining the 13-year-old operating system software on April 8, 2014. 

That means XP is no longer secure enough to use on the UC Davis network—or to use online, period. If you still use XP, you need to move to a newer operating system.

UC Davis policy prohibits use of unsupported OS or application software on machines that connect to the campus network. Unmaintained software is a common entry point for viruses and malware, which can then spread to other UC Davis computers.

See the UC Davis Windows XP Security page for more information.

UPDATE: 

SSG Graduate Student Presentation 2014

posted Sep 29, 2014, 1:51 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:33 PM ]

Thanks to everyone who listened!

Appointment Slots in Google Calendar

posted Sep 16, 2014, 11:43 AM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:21 PM ]

Did you know you can make appointment slots in Google Calendar? 

The appointment slots feature lets you set one period of time on your calendar, divided into available time slots for people to reserve. For instance, professors or staff can have their students reserve time during office hours each week. These appointment calendars can also be shared on the web.

Here's a video that explains how to create and reserve appointment slots.



UC Davis Wireless Certificate Update (September 2014)

posted Sep 2, 2014, 9:58 AM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:32 PM ]

The UC Davis wireless networks, MoobileNetX and ResNetX, have updated security certificates. Because of this change, UC Davis wireless network users may be prompted to accept a new certificate.

Please see this UC Davis IT Knowledge Base article for details:  UC Davis Wireless Certificate Update (September 2014)


If you are currently not using MoobileNetX, and are instead using MoobileNet, now's a good time to try it. MoobileNetX employs an encryption for authentication (802.1x). It also means you won't have to login every time you need to use wireless on campus.

For more information about MoobileNetX, click here.

www.cs.ucdavis.edu server down for maintenance

posted Aug 20, 2014, 3:53 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:21 PM ]

The www.cs.ucdavis.edu server will be down for a brief time August 20th, from 3:50 to 4:00PM. 

This downtime is to install updates to the system.

Microsoft Home Use Program Now Available

posted Aug 12, 2014, 3:51 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:22 PM ]

Microsoft’s Office Home Use Program (HUP) is now available for departments that participate in the Microsoft UC-MCCA software leasing program (which includes all primary Engineering departments, including Computer Science). You are now eligible to participate in Microsoft's Software Assurance Home Use Program (HUP). This program enables you to get a licensed copy of Microsoft Office for desktop PC to install and use on your personally-owned home computer.

Under the Home Use Program, you and our other employees who are users of qualifying applications at work (e.g. Office Enterprise) may acquire a licensed copy of the corresponding Home Use Program software (e.g. Office Enterprise) to install and use on a home computer. You may continue using HUP software while you are under our employment and as long as the corresponding software you use at work has active Software Assurance coverage.

For more information, see the CoE IT Shared Services new COE Software Site

New Advice on Heartbleed Internet Security Bug Released from Campus - Change your Kerberos Passphrase

posted Apr 15, 2014, 3:18 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:21 PM ]

Campus is now advising everyone to change our Kerberos passphrases. Go to computingaccounts.ucdavis.edu, select "Change your passphrase," and follow the instructions.

You should not use your Kerberos passphrase for any non-UC services. Re-using passwords increases the risk of a breach.

Seriously consider changing your passphrases for other services, such as banks and retailers, once they have fixed their own vulnerabilities.

Do not respond to suspicious email messages, especially when they ask you for your passphrase or other personal information. More information is available at security.ucdavis.edu.


Campus and SSG assess 'Heartbleed' Internet security risk - What should I do?

posted Apr 10, 2014, 1:04 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:21 PM ]

Information and Educational Technology is distributing a message yesterday in response to the "Heartbleed" Internet hack. Note that Campus is "not requiring campus users to change their campus Kerberos passphrase". Campus has changed their position on this and advises changing your Kerberos passphrase.

Other websites are suggesting passphrase changes, see below.

In response to this issue, the CS Systems Support Group (SSG) has performed network scans on all CS and IDAV networks and have contacted those people with systems that are vulnerable to this risk.


What Should I do?
Experts are advising to change any passphrase on a site that was vulnerable, after they patch for the issue. If you used a passphrase on multiple sites, and one was vulnerable, change all of those website passphrases as well. While you are doing that, remember, it's best to make a unique passphrase for every site. More information on passphrases.

Places that have reported patching and are advising passphrase changes

These websites are reporting they had the Heartbleed vulnerability, and it is now patched. It is suggested you change your passphrase on these sites now. For other websites, check the Websites Reporting on Heartbleed Patching, below.

Google
Facebook
YouTube
Yahoo!
Wikipedia
Bing
Pinterest
Blogspot
Live
Instagram
Tumblr
Reddit
MSN
Netflix
Microsoft
Flickr
Blogger
Googleusercontent.com
Feedbin
Pinboard
GetPocket
IFTTT
Amazon Web Services (for website operators only, Amazon.com was not affected)
GoDaddy
Intuit
Dropbox
Minecraft
OKCupid
SoundCloud
Wunderlist


Websites Reporting on Heartbleed patching


DNS Server Change - Shutting down old CS regnant.cs.ucdavis.edu server April 14th

posted Mar 26, 2014, 5:05 PM by Ken Gribble   [ updated Apr 3, 2019, 2:21 PM ]

Do Not Enter
A year or more ago, the Systems Support Group (SSG) announced that the Computer Science department now standardly uses the campus DNS servers when configuring systems Name to Address Resolution (DNS). The old CS server, regnant.cs.ucdavis.edu was left up and is still forwarding DNS requests to Campus.

Not for long, however!

April 14th, in the morning, regnant will be turned off.

If you haven't changed your systems DNS servers settings, you may find your network is slow or non-functional after this date. If so, here are the servers you should be using (in order from primary to secondary):


169.237.250.250
169.237.1.250


All other setting can remain the same, but regnant's IP (169.237.6.10) should be removed from your systems settings.

For modern linux systems, you should use your GUI network configuration tools.


More than likely you already made this change, or we made it for you. We have found some systems that haven't been changed over, and have written their owners to remind them of the change.

As always, if you have issues, please contact us at: support2@cs.ucdavis.edu

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