Information TechnologyAnnouncements

IT Support Services has two openings for summer workers. You can apply using the online form.

Our computer lab machine availability information is now available on Amherst Mobile at m.amherst.edu.

Save a link to m.amherst.edu on your smart phone or other mobile device to quickly check for computer availablity, laundry machine availblity, dining menus and lots of other useful information. 

Use Intel's password strength test website to learn how to create strong passwords.

https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/forms/passwordwin.html (external link to intel.com)

In the past few days, another Internet security story has made the headlines.  This new threat, referred to as "Heartbleed," exploits a vulnerability on secure (https) websites that use OpenSSL.  

The following site may be helpful in telling you which passwords you need to change right now, such as FaceBook, Tumblr, Gmail, etc.:

http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bug-websites-affected/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link 

Now that Microsoft no longer provides security patches for Windows XP, it is important that Windows XP users do two things:

• Exercise extreme caution surfing the web
• Make plans to upgrade

If you are still running Windows XP, you should restrict any web browsing to known good sites, avoid using Internet Explorer, and, when reading email, refrain from opening any email containing an attachment unless you were expecting such an email from the sender.

The Information Technology department seeks a current Amherst College senior or recent Amherst graduate for the position of Information Technology Fellow. This is a one-year position which may be renewed for a second year. The Fellow reports to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and will be responsible for facilitating special projects and general operations of the department. The fellowship offers an excellent opportunity to learn about managing an IT organization.  

The College website now has a new Events Calendar. With this new Events Calendar, there are significant changes to all calendars on the website with new design and features available. There is a new College website navigation menu also. 

Here’s the new Events Calendar: https://www.amherst.edu/news/events/calendar.

New scanners are available in the Seeley Mudd building Center for Creative Technology (CCT) computer center. The new scanners are two Epson XL 11000 Photo edition scanners and one Epson v500 OCR document/photo scanner. The Epson XL 11000 Photo edition scanners have the option of using slide trays which are available from the Help Desk, the trays are kept in the locked cabinet behind the HelpDesk.

Many news outlets including this story from Reuters.com are revealing how Bitcoin virtual currency website Mt. Gox stopped trading amid rumors of possible thefts of some Bitcoin holdings.

Read more at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/us-mtgox-website-idUSBREA1O07920140225

February 25, 2014

Apple has announced that all web browsers on iOS devices (including Safari and app versions of other browsers) and the Safari web browser only for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks have a security vulnerability. They have a flawed implelentation of the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. As a result, another device on your local wireless network may be able to intercept and read your SSL encrypted traffic. SSL is the most widely used security protocol on the Internet, used by virtually all shopping and banking sites, among many others.

The 2014 Winter Olympics can be found on NBC Sports HD, cable channel 71.2.

The scam, simplified: They call you, but immediately hang up. You see a missed call. You call back. They charge you for the call, and for each minute they can keep you on the line.

We have scheduled Amherst Website CMS trainings for Interterm. All trainings will take place in the Barker Room A Level Frost Library.

If we don’t get any signups or very few for these series of trainings we will also schedule another round of trainings for Spring. You can also call the Help Desk and request specific CMS training as needed if you have a new employee or changed job responsibilities.

The Creating and Maintaining Webforms training will include working with webforms for Course Evaluations for ADCs.

IT has added some fun and useful courses for Interterm including "Filming an Interview" and "Web Programming". Find details and the full course schedule at the Interterm website https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/our-community/interterm.

The Phillip T. Ives '32 weather station (outside Webster Hall since 2001) is now on Weather Underground thanks to Andy Anderson from IT Academic Technology Services who made the arrangements.

Check out the latest readings from the station at the Weather Underground.

You can also visit the weather station’s local web page.