By now you should have seen the news of widespread ransomware attacks. It is projected to have affected users in more than 150 countries.
In this attack ransomware called WannaCry was emailed to users. When opened, the malware locked files on their computers. Older versions of Microsoft Windows systems that have not applied security patches were affected.
It all started with Microsoft Lync. University staff wanted an instant messaging platform and our phone systems were due for an update, so the Lync implementation made sense on many levels. While Lync is still being used by many customers across campus, Skype for Business is being rolled out to these customers one department at a time. Here’s what you need to know when Skype for Business comes to your department.
Can CRM work at Ohio State? It’s a reasonable question. For starters, in an organization this big, very few initiatives are simple. And you may have heard that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives – especially at large organizations – are notorious for failing. We knew all of this when discussions first began at Ohio State, and we didn’t want to become just another statistic.
According to a Symantec Security Threat Report, in 2016 there were 20 data breaches in higher education, exposing the personal information of approximately 5 million people. Those figures illuminate a grim reality -- it only takes the loss of one person’s user name and password to expose the private information of thousands, or even millions, of other system users.
The Ohio Higher Education Computing Council (OHECC) brings together information technology (IT) organizations and professionals from institutions of higher education in the state of Ohio. This year Ohio State is hosting the annual OHECC conference on May 17-19, giving central Ohio IT professionals the opportunity to attend without the added cost of travel, meals and accommodations.
Not only do you have a choice in cloud storage and collaboration services, but more choices are also being added to the market on a regular basis. They include options like Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. As cloud storage becomes more advanced, more products will undoubtedly be added to the mix.
Universities have a responsibility to numerous agencies of oversight; federal standards for universities may come from commerce or health agencies and from research, education and industry groups. Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) have the unenviable role of meeting all these requirements, while simultaneously keeping systems and information safe.
SACM stands for Service Asset and Configuration Management, and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has spent the past couple years working through the process. Specifically, we’ve cataloged what is on each of our servers, how each one is supported, and what interrelationships it has with other applications and services. The key deliverable of this work is a configuration management database (CMDB) that stores all of this information for easy retrieval and updates.
The gender gap is a continuing area of focus for higher education, and with good reason considering industry trends. According to Fortune Magazine, the number of women majoring in computer science has decreased over time from 35% in 1990 to only 26% in 2013.
Accessible software is good for everyone, not just people with disabilities. Keeping that in mind, and to remain true to our commitment to diversity, our approach to accessibility is strongly related to universal design. Universal design means creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations.
