Information Technology Announcements

On Tuesday, January 20, 2015, the IT department upgraded the following VPN services: VPN Student, VPN Connect (faculty and staff), and VPN Firewall. If you use one of these services you will need to take action in order to take advantage of the upgrade.

Apple released its latest computer operating system, OS X version 10.10, also known as Yosemite, in October 2014. We have been monitoring software compatibility very closely to determine when such deployment for college-owned computers would cause the least impact. We will begin offering Yosemite for office and mobile computers in May 2015, after the end of the academic year.

In order to accommodate NBC HD on Ch 63.2 for the viewing of Super Bowl through our Cable TV provider, ABC HD will be unavailable Friday morning to Monday morning. ABC SD, Ch 5, will continue to be available. Please modify scheduled recordings you may have from ABC HD to ABC SD from Friday morning to Monday morning. You may contact us at AskIT@amherst.edu, if you have any questions or concerns.

Please be careful if you receive a phone call or voice mail message purporting to be from the IRS about pursuing legal action. There are also variations of this scam involving parking tickets, real estate taxes, and foreclosures. This is a widespread phone fraud operation ongoing since at least March 2014. People have reported to the IT Help Desk that they have received these fraudulent phone calls at their home, cellular and campus phone numbers.

If you get a call from someone claiming to be with the IRS asking for a payment, here’s what to do:

UMass Amherst, Smith and Mt. Holyoke are reporting incidents of Windows computers infected with  malware that encrypts the hard drive and asks for payment of a ransom before a deadline. There are many variants of this malware generally known as "crypto malware" or "crypto ransomware". CryptoLocker is one variant of it that has been in the news and new variants continue to appear.

Apple released a new Mac computer operating system yesterday, known as Yosemite or OS X version 10.10. Yosemite may not be fully compatible with some software applications used for academic purposes at Amherst College. We recommend that faculty and staff do not install Yosemite on their notebooks or office workstations at this time. We prefer not to deploy such major upgrades during the academic year, to prevent a disruption of current projects and academic plans for students and faculty.

UMass TechTalk
John Sileo on Defending Your Digital Devices

A fun, non-technical learning experience on your personal information and identity safety delivered by a leading speaker and expert on identity theft and online privacy.

Thursday, October 23, 2014, 10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.

Student Union Ballroom UMass Amherst

Register for this Event
http://www.massachusetts.edu/ISOCevents/amherst

This event is free and open to all. Registration required.

Apple recently released an update to iOS 8 for the iPhone and iPad. We are aware of an issue with iOS 8 that prevents iPhones and iPads from establishing a successful connection with Apple TVs in the classrooms. If you have an iPhone or an iPad and have not upgraded to iOS 8, please do not update at this time. If you have updated already, please be aware of this issue. We are evaluating the situation and will provide more details as more information becomes available.

A new web browser vulnerability has come to light. The web browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as well as the web email application Mozilla Thunderbird have updates available today that address this serious computer security issue. Please make sure to update your web browser as soon as possible to proctect your computer, your own data and privacy and College data.

See our instructions on how to Check the Version of and Update Web Browsers.

Apple will release Mac OS X updates shorlty also to address this issue. When an operating system update is available for your Mac make sure to run it. iOS mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) and Windows computers should not be vulnerable to this exploit.

More information about this issue:

College network resources and software management tools are being examined and updated as needed against this exploit.

For those with iOS devices - iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch, there is now an upgrade to iOS 8 available. iOS 8 is the latest instance of the iOS operating system.

It is fine to go ahead and upgrade your iOS devices to iOS 8 if you wish. As always, you should make sure to back up your device by plugging it into a Mac computer first then do the upgrade.

Warning! There is a recall on some HP notebook chargers, they’re a fire hazard.

The recall is for Hewlett-Packard LS-15 AC power cords that were distributed with HP and Compaq notebook and mini notebook computers, and with AC adapter-powered accessories including docking stations.

Our College-owned notebooks and docking stations are from Dell and Lenovo but if you have a personal computer from HP please check and make sure if your power cord, docking station or AC adapter-powered accessories are part of the recall.

In his article on Quartz "Here's Why I Never Have to Teach Anything Boring Again" Brian McDermott reflects on blended learning and teaching the first MOOC at UMass Amherst.

http://qz.com/238768/heres-why-i-never-have-to-teach-anything-boring-again/