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Voice and Data Services

New Voicemail System Rolls Out

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Voice Mail

Voice Mail

Early this year, following much planning and several announcements, UCI faculty and staff were migrated to the new OIT Voice Mail service, replacing the previous service known as “Infomail.”

Three years ago, NACS (now part of OIT) began an intensive process of exploring alternatives, as Infomail was no longer supported by its vendor, and spare parts to keep the system running were already scarce.  At the same time, voice mail technology was evolving, and NACS wanted to keep open the possibility of providing new functionality made available through modern technology.  Other criteria included the ability to emulate Infomail to minimize the impact on users, and security features to counter the rise in phone-mediated identity theft and other forms of fraud.

Once the Voice Mail system was selected as the best match to our diverse needs, NACS began a long process of working with the vendor to develop and test special purpose software so that the Voice Mail system could emulate Infomail. This project was quite successful, and only a few differences between Infomail and Voice Mail remain.

OIT plans to enrich the Voice Mail service over time with new features.  Already users are able to do some things not possible with Infomail, such as using a simple menu to configure your Voice Mail greeting to indicate why you are not in the office (e.g. vacation) and when you expect to return, rather than dictating a custom message for each absence.

More information on the new Voice Mail service is on line: a FAQ, and PDF documents offering a basic Users Guide, a navigation map, and a hierarchical description of Voice Mail features.

Phishing Attempts Continue

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Phishing

On October 9, 2009, more than 6000 UCI affiliates received an email message claiming that they were required to click on a link which would take them to a web site to update their email accounts. This message has been confirmed to be an example of “phishing,” a malicious attempt to have you divulge personal information in order to allow someone to gain access to your information or services.

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) would like to remind you that you will never be asked for, and you should never provide, your password or other personal information by email. If you ever question a request for information, please contact the OIT Help Desk at (949) 824-2222 or oit@uci.edu so we can help you check its validity.  If you suspect that you have received a phishing email, do not respond to it or click on the links. You may optionally report it to the Anti-Phishing Workgroup, but in any case delete it.

Spear phishing emails are a special type of phishing email targeted to a select group of users. These emails tend to be more specific than a regular phishing email, including information more detailed and familiar to the recipient. As with standard phishing emails, these messages often include a request for personal information and a notification of account suspension or closure for failing to reply.  At UCI, such a message will often simulate official notification from a real campus department such as OIT, and may make reference to your actual account or email address.

More information on phishing and how to protect yourself can be found online.  If you have not already done so, OIT strongly recommends you take the online “Information Security” tutorial available on TED.

UCI Cellular Services

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Cell phone

Cell phones are a significant component of work life at UCI, whether for reaching people away from the office, connecting to the Web and email with a smartphone, or receiving critical notifications (zotAlert) in the event of a campus emergency.

OIT works with many cellular providers to continuously improve coverage at UCI, as well as to make discounted services available to employees. A summary of providers with a presence at UCI (AT&T, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) as well as cell site locations can be found online.  Recently, for example, a new AT&T site was installed on Engineering Tower, significantly improving coverage for AT&T subscribers.

OIT is also researching new technologies in the field of cellular telephony.  One promising new technology is the “Distributed Antenna System” (DAS) whereby numerous small, easily-installed antennas communicate through fiber optic cable to a coordination site which connects to the cellular carriers.  This makes cellular coverage more like Wireless Internet (WiFi) in its flexibility and capacity.

We are always happy to hear from cell users on campus about their experiences so that we can prioritize proposals from cellular carriers for improving coverage at UCI.

ZotPortal: Online Resources for Students

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ZotPortal

After an extensive campus-wide planning process, the student portal “ZotPortal” went live on April 27 of this year.  IAT-NACS worked with Student Affairs to design the high-reliability and high-performance system hardware, and provides ongoing network and system administration services, as well as housing elements of ZotPortal in separate data centers.

Through ZotPortal students can access academic and administrative information, connect to a Facebook account, subscribe to UCI campus news, student media and entertainment feeds, check UCI libraries catalogue and even search for people and campus web sites from one search box.

Students can arrange ZotPortal’s look and layout flexibly through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, subscribing to the particular information channels they want.

ZotPortal runs on hardware intended to provide maximal service continuity.  There are duplicate servers, connected through IAT’s DMRnet.  In the event one server becomes unavailable (say due to a power failure), the twin automatically assumes all portal activity.  Within each physical server are many CPUs, configured to provide a flexible group of virtual servers so that ZotPortal can support very large numbers of simultaneous requests.  Data is stored on a disk cluster configured with Sun’s ZFS (zettabyte file system) which provides both redundancy (data protection) and high performance parallel access.

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.