Month: July 2008

Server Room Cooling issues

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No services are critically impacted, but our Liebert cooling unit is down causing temperatures in the Newman Wolfrom server room to reach dangerous levels. We have temporarily cooled the room with fans while we attempt to reset the unit and/or wait for repair professionals.

This may impact our ability to respond to your issues this morning in an agile manner. Your patience with support requests is appreciated.

New Web Site and Mobile Computing

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Two unrelated topics.

Mobile computing: Do you have a laptop, USB external drive, or thumb drive?

If we haven’t talked about laptops and encryption, we need to talk right away. Generally these conversations have gone well. Either you have social security numbers, grades, and/or credit card numbers on a University owned mobile device or you don’t. If you don’t, you’re fine. If you do we’re here to help find the least invasive method for removing or encrypting this information.

A new department website: Visit https://www2.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/v.5.5/ to get a look at the new department website. We are still actively filling in holes and figuring out what to do with all of the current web content. Feedback and input are welcomed.

Time off on Windows Machines

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Several people have reported that their computer’s time is off.
We looked into the issue, and found that our time server had lost some time overnight. It has been fixed, and we’re diagnosing it now.

In the meantime, if your computer’s time is off, please manually reset it using the following link as a reference (time.gov): http://time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5

On windows, this is done either by right-clicking on the system clock and choosing, “Adjust DateTime”, or by running the command “net time /set” into the Start -> Run dialog box.

Request: Information about the computers you use.

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I’m trying to talk to each member of the staff about computer security. It would help tremendously if you would provide me (mreed@chemistry.ohio-state.edu) with the following at your earliest convenience:

– number/type of computers you use and operating system of each
– if you routinely need to work with (and store) grades or social security
numbers

You could simply reply to this email with something like:

2 Windows Desktop PCs (my work PC and a student PC)
1 Linux Laptop (controls an instrument)
I do not use grades or social security number on these computers.

(but whatever information is appropriate for you)

We’re required to report on security to OIT monthly. Included in this report is a count of machines that have “restricted data” stored on them. (The most common restricted data are grades or social security numbers, but credit card #s are an issue too.) We have a fairly good idea about the number and makeup of computers used in the department. I’m just trying to get a handle on computers that are already secure for reporting. The purpose of all of this goes back to incidents where social security numbers we lost and it ends up costing ALOT of money to notify and provide services to those affected.

When discussing this with faculty and staff I have found that most people do not have restricted data on their computers and it is very helpful for Computer support to simply account for the machine and be done with it.

If it turns out that you do have SSNs, grades, credit card #s or some other data on your machine- no need to panic. Support can help remove it or aid you in encrypting your machine. This is most critical with mobile devices (laptops, USB drives), but in some cases it might be a good idea to handle desktops too. Computer Support is here to help and we ideally want to offer sensible solutions that don’t create a lot of extra work for you.

Thanks for the help.