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ReadyTalk: New Option for Teleconferencing

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ReadyTalk

Conference calls are an economical way to meet with people, both on and off campus. They are an easy, effective way of cutting travel time and expenses, allowing participants to work from their own offices or wherever they can be most productive.

Web conferencing combines telephone conference calls with the use of a Web browser to share viewing of presentations and documents. By allowing all conference participants to view the same thing at the same time, web conferences can improve discussions, presentations, and explanations. Questions and answers are simpler and easier.

UC has signed a system-wide agreement with ReadyTalk to provide teleconferencing services to UC campuses.  Service options include inexpensive, reservationless conference calling, as well as higher-end operator-assisted conference calls.  Both kinds allow Web conferencing at no additional cost.

IAT-NACS has preapared a quick how-to guide for use of ReadyTalk conferencing services.  Individuals and departments who wish to take advantage of this new option can call ReadyTalk directly, and pay for the service with the UCI PALcard.

UCI Identity and Access Management Website

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IDM

IAT-NACS provides a suite of identity management, authentication, and authorization services collectively referred to as Identity and Access Management services. A group of web pages has been developed describing UCI network identities (e.g., UCInetIDs), how they work, and how they will evolve.  There is a wealth of information for those interested in technical details.  Here are some highlights.

The campus directory provides contact information for campus affiliates, and allows you to control certain information pertaining to your network presence on campus, such as the server your UCI email should be sent to.

UCInetIDs are network identities issued to campus affiliates.  With your UCInetID and password, you can access a variety of online services, many through WebAuth.  IAT has recently extended UCInetID authentication, with appropriate limits, to applicants for admission, and third parties for whom some services will be provided.

UC Trust is a system for using each campus’s network authentication system (UCInetIDs at UCI) to access services, as appropriate, provided by other UC campuses as well as some companies whose services are restricted to UC affiliates.

Because UCInetIDs are so vital to conducting University business, IAT has developed plans for enhancing UCInetID security.  Also, as the number of users, past and present, grows, it will be necessary to upgrade UCInetIDs beyond their current 8-character limit.  You can read about this project online as well.

Restricted Web Sites

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Faculty and staff often find it necessary to conduct research or other University business from off campus. NACS has been providing tools for this class of use for many years.

In particular, certain network resources (such as electronic journals licensed by the UCI Libraries) can only be accessed by authorized users, and that determination is based on whether the request for access comes from a computer on campus. So, the trick to getting to these resources from off campus is to appear to actually be on campus.

NACS has installed and configured a special server, the VPN (Virtual Private Network) which — once you have established your identity with your UCInetID and password — will take your network connection and make it appear to be a local UCI connection.

NACS provides a Web page which allows off-campus users to take advantage of the VPN server simply and conveniently, if the resource you wish to access is a Web site. Information on how to use the WebVPN can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/vpn/webvpn.html

If the resource you need access to is not a Web site, NACS offers the Cisco VPN client, a program to download and run on your local computer which makes any or all of your Internet activity seem to originate from on campus. More information can be found at http://www.nacs.uci.edu/security/vpn/

Tripwire Watches for Hackers

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There are a great many ways malicious users of the Internet are devising to sneak software onto a computer. It can be simply annoying but benign (adware), invasive of privacy (tracking visited web sites), and even destructive.

Security patches and firewalls are excellent defensive measures, but if something gets past those defenses, it’s important to find out before any data can be stolen or destroyed. And if your department runs a server, any disruption can be far-reaching.

Wouldn’t it be nice if something monitored the software installed on a key computer, and the configuration of the system, and notified the appropriate person any time it spotted a change? He or she could ignore changes that were deliberate, but take swift action when something was changed without permission.

This is just what Tripwire offers. Tripwire takes a snapshot of a computer, and stores this “baseline configuration” in a database. It then makes regular “integrity checks” and reports any changes (what changed, when, and by whom). Authorized changes become part of a  new baseline configuration.

Tripwire is available for Linux, Sun’s Solaris, HP’s OSF1, IBM’s AIX, and Microsoft Windows. NACS systems administrators, as well as Computing Support Coordinators in some other campus units, are deploying Tripwire to protect their key servers. The NACS Distributed Computing Support (DCS) group is also deploying Tripwire on servers it has under contract, thereby making the benefits of the software available to DCS clients.

A recent UC system wide agreement has made the Tripwire software very affordable. Departmental computing support staff and others interested are invited to contact NACS to discuss deploying Tripwire in their units.