Information Technology Updates
UNI IT has chosen Bitwarden as its licensed partner for an enterprise password manager. Bitwarden also offers free accounts that should be more that adequate for most uses. Migration from other password managers is generally available and documented on Bitwarden's website. For more on password managers in general, see https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/power-password-managers/
Phone call scams are sometimes preferred by bad actors because they provide a direct connection between the bad actor and the potential victim. Guidance to protect yourself can be found at https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/stop-phone-call-scams/
Your financial accounts are a primary target for cyber-criminals. You have money, and they will do anything to steal it. By financial accounts, we mean not only your checking or savings accounts, but also investments, retirement, and online payment accounts like PayPal. Fortunately, with some simple, fundamental steps, you can protect yourself. Read the details at https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/securing-financial-accounts/
As QR codes continue to be heavily used by legitimate organizations—from Super Bowl advertisements to enforcing parking fees and fines, scammers have crept in to abuse the very technology for their nefarious purposes. The rest of the story is here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/qr-codes-used-in-fake-parking-tickets-surveys-to-steal-your-money/
AI: What is It and Why Should I Care?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) describes systems programmed to think and respond like humans. In fact, we asked the AI solution ChatGPT that very question and got this response. https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/artificial-intelligence/
Duo accounts that have not used a phone call or SMS passcode since the first of the year will have those methods removed from their Duo account later this week. Duo Push via the Duo mobile app remains the primary and best way for users to interact with UNI's multi-factor authentication solution. Those that are actively using phone calls or SMS for authentication may continue to do so for now.
Duo is migrating from their long-used iframe authentication window to what they have chosen to call the Universal Prompt. When and how we migrate is up to us but there is a deadline of March 30, 2024 when the iframe method will no longer be available.
We are planning to take our first step in this migration this coming Wednesday, February 1. Only logins to Microsoft 365 resources will be affected on Feb 1. There will be several differences that you may see:
- The appearance of the Duo prompt. See the guide page link below for samples.
- The way in which Duo will prompt for your second factor, i.e., a Push may happen automatically if that is the most secure method available for your account.
- If you need to interact differently with Duo for a login, cancel the first choice used and click "Other options" to choose a different method.
- The method that you use for that application will become the default method for your next use of that same application.
- If you need to change that default, cancel the request, click "Other options", and choose your new default method.
If you have questions about this change or the options available to you, please contact the Service Desk at 319-273-5555.
All details and information about Duo's Universal Prompt may be found at https://guide.duo.com/universal-prompt
Google announced in 2021 that unlimited storage is no longer available for education customers and will soon enforce a 100TB total storage limit. UNI responded to this announcement by purchasing Google Plus licensing for students, faculty, and staff which took our total storage allocation to 320TB for campus. Unfortunately, even with some voluntary cleanup by faculty and staff, our current storage use is 325TB and continues to rise. Action must be taken this year to keep us under the 320TB threshold that Google will impose on us in 2024.
Users of Google Workspace services at UNI will begin to see storage quotas applied to their individual Google accounts and Shared Drives in January 2023. Quotas will be applied in a way that business processes will not be disrupted. UNI Information Technology is required to set quotas on Google Shared Drives or Google will apply them for us. For users and departments that are well over potential storage quotas, UNI Information technology will reach out to discuss alternate storage options.
Please review this page for more information on storage quotas, alternate storage options, and UNI’s strategy to stay under Google imposed storage limits. For tips on how to reduce your Google storage, please see this article.
We took a break during the pandemic but the Phishing Education project is returning this spring. With the help of our vendor, realistic phishing messages will be sent to faculty and staff over the coming months. No punitive action will result from this exercise. All individual results will be kept private although large scale results and trends may be shared with appropriate partners. The sole purpose of the project is to educate the community and provide examples of things to watch for in real-life phishing messages.
Mobile devices, such as smartphones, smart watches, and tablets, continue to advance and innovate at an astonishing rate. As a result, you may be replacing a new device as often as every year. Unfortunately, you may not realize just how much personal data are on your devices — far more than your computer. Below we cover the different types of data on your mobile devices and how you can securely wipe your device before disposing or replacing it. Read more at https://www.sans.org/newsletters/ouch/disposing-mobile-devices/
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