Information Technology News Archive

1996 - 2017

OIT Upgrades Interface to the Internet

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border router

Border Router

OIT used the holiday break as an opportunity to upgrade the border router and campus firewall, improving network performance and reliability.  The timing  was chosen to minimize the impact on the campus community who rely on UCInet Internet connectivity.

Prior to this project, UCI had a single system providing the link between UCInet and the Internet, and this device was also responsible for providing the campus firewall service.  This represented a vulnerability, in that hardware failure could result in loss of connectivity.

The border router was also aging, having been put into service in August of 2003, and Cisco had announced the end of maintenance for this model later this year.

The project replaced the components within the border router, added a second border router, distributed Internet services between them, and isolated the firewall service to its own redundant systems.  Tests have demonstrated a significant increase in network bandwidth as well.  Now if one of the two routers should go down, connectivity will be sustained by the redundant architecture of the new system.

The current arrangement also makes use of Cisco’s Virtual Switching System technology, allowing the two routers to be managed as a single service.

An upcoming goal is to house the two border routers in different buildings.  One will remain in Central Plant, and the other will be housed in OIT’s SSPA network vault.  This geographic distribution will further reduce the risk that loss of power or other facilities to a single building could interrupt UCI’s connection to the Internet.

Jeff Martin, New Manager for OIT’s Windows Services Group

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Jeff Martin

Jeff Martin

Jeff Martin has recently joined OIT to lead its Windows Services Group (WSG).   His responsibilities include facilitating the consolidation and integration of campus Windows infrastructure, services, and Windows system administrators into the centralized campus Windows enterprise managed by OIT.

Jeff comes to UCI from UC Riverside, where he served for ten years, most recently as Operations Manager for Financial and Business Operations.  This was a unit formed in a consolidation process analogous to OIT’s current effort to provide the most efficient use of resources and more consistent IT support to faculty, staff, and students.

Jeff wasn’t actually looking to move to UCI, but was intrigued by the WSG manager job when he saw it posted on a UC mailing list.  He decided to come to UCI because he was inspired by the consolidation vision, and the opportunities that became apparent during the interview process.

When not planning Windows services improvements, Jeff enjoys cars and photography.  He said UCI provides a wonderful variety of architectural styles for his camera.

The Windows Services Group was created in 2009 to help bring consistency, security, and reliability to a diverse array of Windows installations around campus.  Jeff’s immediate responsibilities will be to continue to bring this vision into being, but he says he plans to be at UCI for a long time. He looks forward to helping OIT provide managed, integrated, effective information technology systems and services to faculty, staff, and students.  Jeff can be reached at 824-0977 or jeffrym@uci.edu .

Acrobat Users Strongly Urged to Purchase Software Maintenance

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Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat’s widespread use has resulted in its becoming a frequent point of attack for malware authors. Adobe releases security updates for recent products, but if you are running Acrobat version 8 or older, your computer is at risk.

If your unit is supported by OIT Desktop Support Services, planning for the purchase and deployment of Acrobat is part of that support.  In other cases, users will need to buy a brand new copy of Acrobat to stay safe. There are two additional options available for use on University computers.

Purchase 2-year software maintenance when buying Acrobat. Departments can purchase a new license of Acrobat for $56.87 through the University contract software reseller, SHI. At the same time you may also purchase 2-yr maintenance for $19.  The maintenance price is pro-rated if you purchase mid-term.  Maintenance allows you to upgrade at no additional charge and is renewable. Thus, for only $19 every two years, you’re always current, and can take advantage of Acrobat X’s newest features, like the ability to convert PDFs to Microsoft Word or Excel files.

If your 25% or more of your department uses Acrobat, you may want to consider the Acrobat Term Site License Program (TSL). The TSL is an annual leasing program.  Under the TSL, a department counts all computer users in the department (“knowledge workers”), whether they use Acrobat or not. Part-time employees count ½, and part-time faculty count 1/3. This count is multiplied by a lease rate to determine the department’s total annual cost. Pricing for the April 2012 renewal has not yet been released, but is expected to be about $4/knowledge worker/year. You always have rights to upgrade to the latest version.

Example: if your department has 100 employees, and 30 use Acrobat, you’d pay $1700 for new licenses, and $300/year for maintenance.  Under the TSL you’d pay $400/year for always-current licenses.  Then, should you need to deploy Acrobat on more computers, there would be nothing more to pay. Enrollment for the TSL occurs in April only, so don’t miss your chance!  Please contact Bob Hudack 824-6759, rjhudack@uci.edu to get started.

In Brief December 2011

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latest news

  • During the campus holiday closure, December 23 – January 2, the OIT Help Desk (824-2222) will remain available for urgent support issues, but with limited staffing and potentially longer resolution times.
  • For those of you who may end up with new mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) following the holiday season, you may wish to coach gift-givers on the devices which will work well on campus, or review OIT’s mobile set-up documentation.
  • You can save money when buying software.  If there is an option to get the software by download (as opposed to buying physical media such as CDs), such purchases are not subject to sales tax.

Network Security Vulnerability Scans

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hacking

The OIT Security Team has begun implementing periodic scans of all hosts connected to the UCI network for the most common and high impact network and web security vulnerabilities.

The purpose to these scans is to find unprotected systems before hackers do.  We can then work with system owners to better protect their computers and data.

Since these scans are benign versions of the attacks hackers use, you may notice certain behaviors in your computer:

  • Your log files may show attempts to login from strange addresses or multiple failures in a row that you don’t expect.  Web access logs may show many requests from the same IP including strange URLs.
  • If you allow anonymous updates to your websites (i.e. no login required), junk data or what looks like spam may be inserted into your application’s database or email forms.
  • If web application uses a database and vulnerable to input injection, regular database queries with altered SQL could take longer to run, connection pools may fill up and requests hang waiting for new connections.

If you observe any of these behaviors, treat it as you would any security breach.  This may include contacting OIT’s IT security team. If these scans discover a vulnerability, IT Security will contact you with advice.  More information can be found on the Security Vulnerability Scans web site.