Announcements
Information Services AnnouncementsHere you will find an historical log of announcements and memos from Information Services to the campus community. Phishing Attempt (11/17/2009)To all OWU e-mail users,Recently, you may receive or have already received a "Dear Account User" message from "OWU HELPDESK SERVICE" in your inbox. This is spam -- specifically, a type of spam called phishing, which has the sole intent of getting your login credentials (username and password) or for gathering other personal information. While Google does an exceptional job of filtering and blocking messages like this a vast majority of the time, it is not an infallible system. So even in our new BishopMail environment, please continue to be wary of any messages that seem strange -- and don't reply to any of them. ANY LEGITIMATE SITE (FOR ANYTHING) WILL NEVER ASK YOU TO E-MAIL YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD FOR ANY REASON. Please remember that, and never respond to such schemes. OWU Wireless network downtime (11/4/2009)Ohio Wesleyan's wireless network will be shut down temporarily at some point between 7 and 8 am EST on Thursday Nov. 5, 2009, for a software upgrade.Warning - Phishing Attempt (10/20/2009)To all OWU e-mail users,Recently, you may have received an email with the following text in the body of the email: Attention: On October 22, 2009 server upgraded will take place. Due to this the system may be offline for approximately half an hour. The changes will concern security, reliability, and performance of mail service and the system as a whole. For compatibility of your browsers and mail clients with upgraded server software you should run SSI certificates update procedure. This is a quite simple. All you have to do is just click the link provided.to save the patch file and then to run it from your computer location. That's all. (Link Removed for security reasons) Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and sorry for possible inconvenience. System Administrator _ This is spam -- It could be a phishing atttemp, which has the sole intent of getting your personal information and then use that information for nefarious purposes. Or, it could be an attempt to install a Trojan virus on your machine. While Google does an exceptional job of filtering and blocking messages like this a vast majority of the time, it is not an infallible system. So please continue to be wary of any messages that seem strange -- and don't reply to any of them. NO LEGITIMATE SITE WILL EVER SEND YOU AN UNSOLICITED EMAIL ASKING YOU FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Please remember to never respond to such schemes and you will better protect yourself from identity theft. Thanks. LAST MINUTE REPRIEVE -- Old OWU e-mail server shutdown postponed until Friday October 23, 2009 (10/19/2009)Because of the recent Fall Break and the resulting absence of many users from campus, the shutdown of access to OWU's old e-mail server at cc.owu.edu has been POSTPONED until FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009, at 10:00 AM.If you have already moved your e-mail completely to the Google-based BishopMail system, this change will not affect you. However, if you still have e-mail on the old WebMail, you will need to move it to the new system before October 23. Instructions on how to do this can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/MovingMail . To see if you have any messages on the old server, you may still login at http://oldmail.owu.edu. In addition, if people are still expecting to reach you at 'username@cc.owu.edu', you will need to notify them to begin using just @owu.edu in your e-mail address. In particular, if you are signed onto an Internet mail list with your address containing '@cc.owu.edu', you will need to do whatever is required at that e-mail list to change '@cc.owu.edu' to '@owu.edu'. If you have any questions about this transition, please contact either the Faculty/Staff Help Desk at helpdesk@owu.edu or the Student Help Desk at techhelp@owu.edu. Other ways of contacting the Help Desks can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/contact. NOTE: The webserver at cc.owu.edu (also known as go.owu.edu) will continue to operate. FINAL WARNING -- OWU's old email server cc.owu.edu going offline Oct. 20 (10/15/2009)On October 20, 2009, OWU's old e-mail server at cc.owu.edu will permanently stop sending and receiving e-mail.If you have already moved your e-mail completely to the Google-based BishopMail system, this change will not affect you. However, if you still have e-mail on the old WebMail, you will need to move it to the new system before October 20. Instructions on how to do this can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/MovingMail. To see if you have any messages on the old server, you may still login at http://oldmail.owu.edu. In addition, if people are still expecting to reach you at 'username@cc.owu.edu', you will need to notify them to begin using just @owu.edu in your e-mail address. In particular, if you are signed onto an Internet mail list with your address containing '@cc.owu.edu', you will need to do whatever is required at that e-mail list to change '@cc.owu.edu' to '@owu.edu'. If you have any questions about this transition, please contact either the Faculty/Staff Help Desk at helpdesk@owu.edu or the Student Help Desk at techhelp@owu.edu. Other ways of contacting the Help Desks can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/ contact. NOTE: The webserver at cc.owu.edu (also known as go.owu.edu) will continue to operate. Another phishing attempt (10/8/2009)To all OWU e-mail users,Recently, you may have received an email with the following text in the body of the email: Subject: DHL Delivery Problem Number 47976 Dear customer! We failed to deliver the package which was sent on the 21st of July in time because the recipient's address is incorrect. Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office. DHL Delivery Services. _ This is spam -- specifically, a type of spam called phishing, which has the sole intent of getting your personal information and then use that information for nefarious purposes. Luckily some system it passed through stripped the attachment from the email or the author forgot to attach it. While Google does an exceptional job of filtering and blocking messages like this a vast majority of the time, it is not an infallible system. So please continue to be wary of any messages that seem strange -- and don't reply to any of them. NO LEGITIMATE SITE WILL EVER SEND YOU AN UNSOLICITED EMAIL ASKING YOU FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Please remember to never respond to such schemes and you will better protect yourself from identity theft. Thanks. Reminder: OWU's old e-mail server stopping service on October 20 (10/8/2009)On October 20, 2009, OWU's old e-mail server, cc.owu.edu, will permanently stop sending and receiving e-mail.If you have already moved your e-mail completely to the Google-based BishopMail system, this change will not affect you. However, if you still have e-mail on the old WebMail, you will need to move it to the new system before October 20. Instructions on how to do this can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/MovingMail . To see if you have any messages on the old server, you may still login at http://oldmail.owu.edu. In addition, if people are still expecting to reach you at 'username@cc.owu.edu', you will need to notify them to begin using just @owu.edu in your e-mail address. In particular, if you are signed onto an Internet mail list with your address containing '@cc.owu.edu', you will need to do whatever is required at that e-mail list to change '@cc.owu.edu' to '@owu.edu'. If you have any questions about this transition, please contact either the Faculty/Staff Help Desk at helpdesk@owu.edu or the Student Help Desk at techhelp@owu.edu. Other ways of contacting the Help Desks can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/contact. Addressing Messages to the Employees List (10/2/2009)Just a reminder that in order to post messages on the OWU employees list, it is currently necessary to address them to employees@thuban.owu.edu Do not use the address employees@owu.edu until further notice -- messages sent to this address will not currenty reach the list. We will notify you when this address is again usable.[This applies to all other bulk mailing lists, such as faculty@thuban.owu.edu and students@thuban.owu.edu.] File Server Upgrade (10/2/2009)Dear Faculty and staff,We have come close to the storage capacity limit on our existing file server. In order to better serve you and your file storage needs I.S. will be implementing an upgrade to our existing file server on Saturday, October 3rd 2009 from 7am to 9am. Please make note that during this time you will not have access to your H: or U: drives. The new file server will significantly improve our storage capacity. It will contain nearly 3 Terabytes of data storage capacity, over 5 times as much as the current file server, with 5 Gigabytes of storage allocated to each user. I.S. understands this upgrade may cause some inconvenience for some users and we thank you in advance for your patience and understanding during this upgrade period. Old OWU E-mail System Shutting Down On October 20 (9/2509)On October 20, 2009, OWU's old e-mail server, cc.owu.edu, will permanently stop sending and receiving e-mail. If you have already moved your e-mail completely to the Google-based BishopMail system, this change will not affect you. However, if you still have e-mail on the old WebMail, you will need to move it to the new system before October 20. Instructions on how to do this can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/ MovingMail . To see if you have any messages on the old server, you may still login at http://oldmail.owu.edu. In addition, if people are still expecting to reach you at 'username@cc.owu.edu', you will need to notify them to begin using just @owu.edu in your e-mail address. In particular, if you are signed onto an Internet mail list with your address containing '@cc.owu.edu', you will need to do whatever is required at that e-mail list to change '@cc.owu.edu' to '@owu.edu'. If you have any questions about this transition, please contact either the Faculty/Staff Help Desk at helpdesk@owu.edu or the Student Help Desk at techhelp@owu.edu. Other ways of contacting the Help Desks can be found at http://helpdesk.owu.edu/ contact. Single-Sign-On to OWU Wikis (9/22/09)To all OWU Wiki Organizers: Information Services is planning to implement single-sign-on (SSO) with Wikispaces for all OWU Wikis next Monday at 9:30 AM. What this means for you and all wiki users is that after Monday you will be able to log into OWU Wikis with the same username and password that you currently use to log into BishopMail, J/CX Web Access, and Blackboard. OWU Wiki memberships and permission levels will not be affected. The only change will be how we sign on to OWU Wikis. Everyone in the OWU Directory will automatically have an account on OWU Wikis. However, membership in individual wikis will still be required to view or edit their content, based on the wiki's permissions settings. One related hurdle that we are forced to overcome is that any current OWU Wikis user with a username different from their OWU username must change it to match or they will not be able to log in after Monday. I will be sending instructions to all such users later today to advise them of the situation and explain how they can change their username. Any invalid usernames that have not been changed by Monday morning will be changed by me so that their wiki memberships remain unaffected and their account is still usable. We anticipate that this new SSO feature will make it easier to use OWU Wikis (Wikispaces) in classrooms and in other capacities on campus. Let me know if you have any questions. Phishing emails (9/21/09)Recently, you may have received a " Webmail Verification Update!" message in your inbox. This is spam -- specifically, a type of spam called phishing, which has the sole intent of getting your personal information and then use that information for nefarious purposes. While Google does an exceptional job of filtering and blocking messages like this a vast majority of the time, it is not an infallible system. So please continue to be wary of any messages that seem strange -- and don't reply to any of them. NO LEGITIMATE SITE WILL EVER SEND YOU AN UNSOLICITED EMAIL ASKING YOU FOR PERSONAL INFORMATION. Please remember to never respond to such schemes and you will better protect yourself from identity theft. Thanks. OWU mailing list test this noon hour (September 18)The OWU mailing lists will be inaccessible for a short period between noon and 1 pm while Information Systems makes some network and system adjustments to isolate the problem mentioned in the earlier allusers mailing. Thank you for your patience. Problem with OWU mailing lists (9/18/09)At approximately 2 pm yesterday (Thursday September 17, 2009) a problem somewhere in the linkage between Google e-mail and OWU's list server began causing all messages intended for e-mail lists to be discarded. Information Systems is currently working to solve this problem; meanwhile, the following workaround should be used to get messages through to the OWU e-mail lists until further notice: When sending a message to be posted to an OWU e-mail list, address the message to (name of list)@thuban.owu.edu, NOT (name of list)@owu.edu Thus, for example, a message for the students list should be addressed to students@thuban.owu.edu Our apologies for the resulting inconvenience. Meanwhile any messages sent since about 2 pm yesterday should be reposted to the appropriate list with address modified as above. Sophos Advisory for Mac Users (9/3/09)Advisory: Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X - updating your operating system to Mac OS X version 10.6 If you have Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac OS X installed and you plan to update your Mac OS X operating system from version 10.5 to version 10.6, you must do one of the following:
Failure to do this will cause your Sophos Anti-Virus installation to crash. This is because Mac OS X version 10.6 is not supported on earlier versions of Sophos Anti-Virus. You can obtain a copy of Sophos version 7.0.5 at http://owufiles.owu.edu/antivirus/Sophos/Mac%20Version/ . This location is only accessible from an Ohio Wesleyan network address. If you are off campus, download it from a machine on campus to a USB drive and use it to transfer the file to your computer. To download, double-click the file savosx70sa.dmg. OWU BishopNet wireless network downtime (8/28/09)In order to install a system software upgrade, the OWU wireless network will be shut down for some of the time between 7 and 8 am on Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Discounted Microsoft Software (8/27/09)As you may or may not already know Microsoft offers discounted software to OWU students and employees through their partner e-academy Inc. We are pleased to announce that effective Monday August 31st 2009, students, staff and faculty will have exclusive access to secure downloads of the popular Microsoft Student Select software at significantly lower prices. The new electronic software delivery (ESD) option will be automatically enabled on our e-academy powered WebStore and will be available alongside the existing Student Select media offerings. The Student Select ESD option provides the following benefits: · Instant access to software – no more waiting for media to be delivered or lost shipments! · Significantly lower costs with no shipping fees! · Environmentally friendly! · They provide full download support for you! · Software and serial key attached to the user’s profile for posterity! · When combined with the Office Enterprise promotion, users will save even more! This is a trial program exclusive to e-academy customers. At this time, the program is set to expire on October 31st – make sure you take advantage of the offer during this 60 day trial period in case they decide not to extend the program. To access the e-academy website go to http://www.owu.edu/ and click on the appropriate 'Students' or 'Faculty/Staff' tab and select J/CX access. After entering your credentials click on the 'Software Center' link at the bottom of the menu on the left. Phishing Attempt (8/7/2009)Dear OWU e-mail users,It appears we've been hit by another wave of phony "University Account Update!!" messages, asking to confirm your email identity by sending personal details, such as your login ID and password to a non-OWU e-mail address. Let me first remind everyone that OWU Information Services will NEVER ask you to send your password via e-mail, and that you should NEVER send your password for ANY Web site or service to anybody else via e-mail. E-mail is not a secure form of communication. Such fraudulent attempts to compromise your account are known as 'phishing' e-mails. You can readily identify these as bogus by checking the details of the message:
If you feel that your account has been compromised please change your password immediately by going to http://password.owu.edu and contact the Help Desk at x3120. Thanks. Scam/spam messages (7/23/2009)Dear OWU e-mail users,In light of a recent wave of "REPLY ASAP" scam/spam e-mail messages to hit OWU accounts, this is just a reminder that OWU Information Services will *never* ask you to send your password via e-mail, and that you should *never* send your password for *any* Web site or service to anybody else via e-mail. E-mail is not a secure form of communication. So please help us keep OWU systems safeguarded by never divulging any of your personal, confidential information (such as passwords) to anyone via e-mail. Serious Internet Explorer security issue (7/8/2009)Dear faculty and staff,If you are using Internet Explorer (IE) for Web browsing on Windows XP, please read this important message. You may have heard that Microsoft recently announced a serious vulnerability with IE. This security flaw appears to allow an attacker to take control of your computer remotely if you simply click on a certain kind of Internet video link. Therefore, Microsoft has just released a temporary "fix-it" to plug this security hole. Please download the fix-it program using this link ... http://www.owu.edu/downloads/ fix_it.msi ... and then run it on your computer. Hopefully, Microsoft will release a more formal security fix next week. In the meantime, using this program is your best bet to avoid the IE security bug. E-mail program resolution with Google (6/26/2009)Dear faculty and staff,Since OWU transitioned to Google Apps for Education (BishopApps) for its institutional e-mail service on April 20, some of you have experienced ongoing issues with certain e-mail client programs -- particularly Eudora. While Information Services has made every effort to support these programs, Google does not officially support Eudora and some other applications, which can cause complications and unexplained behavior with e-mail. If you've been experiencing e-mail issues since the Google transition, we're asking that you please consider one of these two options moving forward: a) Switch to using the BishopMail Web interface exclusively, meaning that all you need is a Web browser to read, compose, and respond to e-mail. One major advantage with this setup is that you can access your same OWU e-mail from any computer anywhere with Internet access. Another advantage is that the BishopMail interface is tightly integrated with Google's other Web services -- including Calendar, Docs, and Sites -- which you might find very useful. b) If you think you need to continue using a standalone program for e-mail, switch to Mozilla Thunderbird. This is a cleanly designed and relatively simple program made by the same group that created the Firefox Web browser, and Information Services has had great success migrating people from other applications -- especially Eudora -- to Thunderbird for e-mail. Please help us successfully complete our institutional transition to Google by following one of these options. In either case, you can contact the Faculty/Staff Help Desk -- helpdesk@owu.edu or 740-368-3120 -- to schedule an appointment to have someone personally assist you with moving to Web-based e-mail or to Thunderbird. Have a great summer. Spam (phishing) message warning (5/1/2009)To all OWU e-mail users,Recently, you may have received a "University Web mail upgrade" message in your inbox. This is spam -- specifically, a type of spam called phishing, which has the sole intent of getting your login credentials (username and password) to then abuse your account. While Google does an exceptional job of filtering and blocking messages like this a vast majority of the time, it is not an infallible system. So even in our new BishopMail environment, please continue to be wary of any messages that seem strange -- and don't reply to any of them. ANY LEGITIMATE SITE (FOR ANYTHING) WILL NEVER ASK YOU TO E-MAIL YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD FOR ANY REASON. If you remember that, and never respond to such schemes, you should be much better off. * April 1 computer virus/worm issue * (3/31/2009)To all OWU students, faculty, and staff:You may have seen recent news reports warning of a global computer virus/worm that is going to activate tomorrow, April 1. While technology security experts don't know exactly what is going to happen on April 1 with this virus/worm -- known as Conficker or Downadup -- there is an easy step you can take to ensure your computer is not impacted: Download and run the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool or MSRT. (Note: This virus/worm only impacts Microsoft Windows, so Mac and Linux users do not need to worry about it.) 1. IF YOU ARE AT AN ON-CAMPUS COMPUTER, follow this link to get the MSRT from our local server: http://owufiles.owu.edu/msrt. exe Save the "msrt" program file to your computer (preferably on your Desktop), then double-click it and follow the instructions to run it. You may also be able to Run the file without having to save it first. 2. IF YOU ARE OFF CAMPUS, follow this link to get the MSRT directly from Microsoft: http://tinyurl.com/msrt-exe Click the "Download" button toward the left side of this Web page, save the program file to your computer (preferably on your Desktop), then double-click it and follow the instructions to run it. You may also be able to Run the file without having to save it first. E-mail system upgrade (2/15/2009)To all OWU e-mail users,We're pleased to report that it appears we were successful in upgrading the OWU e-mail system on Saturday morning. Basic campus e-mail was unavailable from roughly 7 to 10 a.m., with full services (including WebMail) restored by 11:30 a.m. Also, all inbound e-mail to campus was retained during the outage and has been retroactively delivered to all users. While every effort has been made to make this upgrade transparent, if you discover any problems or issues with your OWU e-mail, WebMail, or related services, please contact the OWU Faculty/Staff Help Desk at helpdesk@owu.edu anytime or at 740-368-3120 beginning on Monday. Thank you once again for your patience and understanding as we attempt to improve the OWU e-mail experience. Spam wave of fake order/receipt messages (2/10/2009)Recently, we've received concerned inquiries from OWU faculty and staff about seeing e-mails with "receipt" or "shipped order" or similar Subject lines -- sometimes related to Amazon or Wal-Mart or some other well-known vendor -- showing up in their daily Quarantine Summary messages. We just wanted to let you know that, while it's always good to be vigilant about potential identity theft, this particular wave of e-mails is the latest attempt by spammers to get you to open their junk messages. Hopefully, this phenomenon will go away soon. And, hopefully, these fake order/receipt messages won't make it to your inboxes. E-mail precautions for you (12/5/2008)Please remember this important message:NEVER E-MAIL YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE. In recent weeks, and in spite of our ongoing efforts to filter electronic mail coming into OWU, you may have noticed an increase in a specific form of junk e-mail known as "phishing." A phishing message appears to be legitimate and asks you to provide your OWU username, password, and possibly other personal information. It is not legitimate. This phishing phenomenon is affecting higher education institutions everywhere (not just OWU), causing serious complications for e-mail systems -- but only when e-mail users actually reply. This is where you can help. OWU personnel will never ask for your password via e-mail under any circumstances, because e-mail is not a secure form of communication. So the best and simplest piece of advice I can give you to assist us in keeping the OWU e-mail system safe and secure is: NEVER E-MAIL YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE. Webmail and e-mail account spam (11/24/2008)Many of you may have recently received e-mail message "alerts" or "notifications" regarding your Webmail or e-mail usage. This is junk that unfortunately made it through our e-mail filtering system.Please ignore and delete any messages like this that you receive. Any legitimate campus-wide technology messages will have the [OWU] preamble in the Subject line or will originate from a recognizable @owu.edu e-mail address -- *NOT* any other address. Also, this is just a reminder that you should *NEVER* send your OWU username and password to *ANYONE* via e-mail under *ANY* circumstances. "Upgrade your e-mail account" spam (10/31/2008)Many of you may have recently received a message regarding a "Webmail" upgrade and your system inbox. This is junk that unfortunately made it through our e-mail filtering system.Please ignore and delete any messages like this that you receive. Any legitimate campus-wide technology messages will have the [OWU] preamble in the Subject line or will originate from a recognizable OWU e-mail address. Also, this is just a reminder that you should *NEVER* send your OWU username and password to *ANYONE* via e-mail under *ANY* circumstances. Still need help?For assistance please contact the help desk. |
