Archives for IMSS

Reserve IMSS's New Media Classroom

November 12, 2009 - The New Media Classroom (NMC) is a multimedia facility equipped with integrated presentation and collaboration tools. It hosts and records events such as classes, full-day workshops, research collaboration sessions, PhD thesis exams, press briefings, and live webcasts, and it accommodates 25 visitors comfortably. If you are considering implementing new technology in your lecture hall, classroom, or conference space, come check out the NMC. Take a tour or reserve the classroom by contacting IMSS Academic Media Technologies at 395-4657 or amt@caltech.edu. More...

IMSS Outage: E-mail and Other Critical Services

November 3, 2009 - Maintenance to repair faulty power equipment in the IMSS server room will be begin on Saturday, November 14, at 5 p.m. During the maintenance, the server room will be powered down, and most services will be offline. IMSS expects to have most services back online by midnight, but some services may remain unavailable until 8 a.m. Sunday morning. More...

Beware Fake E-mails Asking for Your Caltech Username & Password

October 7, 2009 - Many campus users are receiving unexpected e-mails claiming to come from Caltech that ask them to provide their usernames and passwords, or to click on links that ask for this information. Be aware that this is a form of security attack known as "phishing," designed to fool users into giving their usernames and passwords to unknown persons. Please do not reply to these e-mails.

IMSS does not recommend providing usernames and passwords by e-mail, and IMSS will never ask for your passwords by e-mail or phone. If you receive any confusing or worrisome e-mails about your Caltech accounts, contact the IMSS Help Desk at 395-3500 or help@caltech.edu or your local system administrator. More...

Campus Phone Service Interruptions

March 23, 2009 - In order to perform repairs that are required due to water damage sustained in the main telephone switchroom, a series of partial outages in campus telephone service have been scheduled. The service disruptions will be limited to less than 15 percent of campus extensions at any one time.

Scheduled repair dates:

Start: Saturday, April 25, 10 p.m.
End: Sunday, April 26, 6 a.m.

Start: Saturday, May 16, 10 p.m.
End: Sunday, May 17, 6 a.m.

Pay phones and non-extension phone lines (e.g., many fax machines) will be unaffected and can be used in case of emergency. For more information, contact Dawn Boyd, in the IMSS Office of Telecommunications, at 395-3881. More...

Fraud Alert

December 1, 2008 - In recent months, members of the Caltech community have been receiving fraudulent e-mail messages that claim to be from a Caltech department or organization and request a variety of personal information, including the recipient's e-mail account username and password. IMSS would like the Caltech community to know that we will not under any circumstances ask users to reveal their passwords to us. Your access.caltech (IMSS account) passwords are not to be shared with anyone; they should be known only to the account's owner. Any e-mail message or telephone call in which you are directed to divulge your password can be identified as fraudulent by this fact alone, no matter how legitimate it may seem. If you receive an e-mail message demanding your password information, please do not respond! More...

Software Training Courses

November 10, 2008 - IMSS is offering several software training courses beginning in December, including Microsoft Excel, Adobe Dreamweaver, and Adobe Photoshop. Additional training courses will be announced. To register for a class, go to the IMSS training schedule and registration website. More...

Does your department/lab/workgroup need a new website?

September 5, 2008 - Caltech's electronic media group has created a new website template for campus use. Features include a built-in content management system, search functionality, the ability to customize your "look" by adding your own home page images, and other features. The template was designed to make it easy for you to set up your new site and add content (including pictures) without having to use Dreamweaver or Photoshop, and without needing any knowledge of HTML. Once created, you can easily access your site at any time to change content, create new pages, or rearrange your site navigation. Hosting is being provided by IMSS for $15 per month. More...

Caltech Data Warehouse is Live August 14

August 14, 2008 - Phase II of the Caltech Data Warehouse is live. Three new datamarts have been added: FAMIS (facilities information), GA (grants accounting), and LD (labor distribution). To get started, go to the Caltech Data Warehouse information site at http://imss.caltech.edu/help/datawarehouse and register for a training session. Upon completion of training, you will be able to log into the new Caltech Data Warehouse with your access.caltech username and password. More...

New iPhone 2.0 Operating System

July 1, 2008 - The new iPhone 2.0 Operating system adds many new useful features and connectivity options for Caltech users including Exchange ActiveSync, improved wireless (Wi-Fi) security and VPN connectivity.
For more details and configuration guides to connect your iPhone with IMSS' systems, please see http://imss.caltech.edu/help/iphone. More...

Messages Asking For Your Password Are a Scam

March 24, 2008 - A large number of Caltech users received messages today claiming to be from "Caltech Team" and asking for the recipient's email username and password. These messages are part of a "phisher scam" against university email users, and other universities have been targeted as well. Please do not reply to these messages. IMSS will never ask you to divulge your password. If you mistakenly did give out your password in response to one of these messages, please change it immediately at our access.caltech site, or call the IMSS Helpdesk (x3500) for assistance. More...

Travel Security For Laptops and Other Devices

February 20, 2008 - According to recent media reports, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents may seize laptops and other electronic devices from overseas travelers, including U.S. citizens, and require that the traveler provide inspectors with passwords and access to data on these devices, regardless of whether specific criminal activity is suspected. In some cases, electronic devices have been confiscated.

Portable devices are frequently lost, stolen, or accidentally damaged, in addition to being subject to search and potential confiscation by either U.S. or foreign officials.

Particularly when traveling abroad, exercise caution when taking any electronic storage device that might contain sensitive, personal, or proprietary information. More...

Fall Course Schedule Announced

September 6, 2007 - IMSS Training has posted the schedule for their fall software training. The course lineup includes classes on Dreamweaver 8 (I and II), Outlook 2003 (I and III), Excel 2003 (I and II), Access 2003 (I), PowerPoint 2003 (I), FileMaker Pro 8 (I), and Word 2003 (I).

For more information and to register, go to http://hr.caltech.edu/Education/course_descriptions.htm, or contact Dian De Sha at dian@caltech.edu or 395-2393.

Don't Lose E-mail Access—Update Your Mail Configuration Now

June 13, 2007 - IMSS will be ending support for unencrypted e-mail retrieval on the central mail servers on Wednesday, June 20. This means that any mail programs still set to retrieve e-mail by sending passwords to the server unencrypted will no longer be able to access mail. Any computers, laptops, or handheld devices still using an older, insecure configuration will stop being able to retrieve e-mail until their settings are updated. Go to illustrated instructions for additional information contact the IMSS Helpdesk at help@caltech.edu. More...

Please ensure that your mail program is sending passwords in encrypted form.

December 19, 2006 -

Programs that send usernames and passwords, as well as data, over the network in unencrypted form can allow your password and other private information to be exposed to a third party without your knowledge. This can threaten not only the security of your own account and data, but the security of the entire system.

Please see our illustrated instructions for configuring POP and IMAP mail clients to use SSL, which allows your mail program to communicate with the server using encryption. Microsoft Exchange Mail users do not need to make this change, because the Exchange protocol already requires mail clients to communicate with the server using encryption.

End of Home Broadband Partnership between Caltech & Charter

December 6, 2006 - Caltech and Charter are ending the partnership that provided Caltech network addresses to Charter home broadband customers. As a result, anyone using a Caltech-Charter home broadband connection will need to migrate to one of Charter's standard home broadband packages or to another home broadband provider. Consult the IMSS web site for detailed instructions on what you need to do in response to these changes. More...

Change to IMSS Central Services Effective Fall 2006

July 14, 2006 - IMSS will be making changes to its e-mail and remote login services starting this fall. We will be turning off support for programs that send usernames and passwords over the network in unencrypted form. Affected programs are telnet, non-anonymous FTP, and e-mail programs configured to check mail using POP or IMAP without SSL encryption. Anonymous FTP does not involve the sending of a user's password and will not be affected by this change. Microsoft Exchange Mail will not be affected either, because the Exchange protocol requires mail clients to communicate with the server using encryption. More...

Telephone Office Announces Cell Phone Setup Fee

March 16, 2006 - Beginning April 3, the Telephone Office will charge a $50 fee for each mobile device obtained and paid for through our office. Some of the advantages of using our services include help with the initial selection and configuration of the device, account management services, and access to preferred customer care. For details, please see: http://www.atc.caltech.edu/telecom/cell_standards.html. More...

Reminder: Scan Your Windows Computers For Viruses Regularly

January 27, 2006 - A prolific new Windows worm is set to destroy data files by overwriting them on the 3rd of each month. Now is a good time to update your antivirus definition list and perform a full scan of your hard drive. Your antivirus program should also be set to update itself on a daily basis. To get a copy of our site-licensed Symantec AntiVirus, please visit http://software.caltech.edu. This is also a good time to back up your important data files. Hardware failures, inadvertent deletions, and malicious code such as viruses are just some of the ways in which important files can be lost or damaged. More...

Serious Vulnerability in Windows Merits Immediate Attention

January 4, 2006 - A serious vulnerability in the Windows Metafile image handler is currently being actively exploited to take control over Windows computers. All Windows XP SP1, XP SP2, and Windows 2003 systems are vulnerable. Microsoft has released their patch for this problem ahead of schedule. Please run Windows Update or visit the Microsoft page linked in the page associated with this announcement ASAP. More...

LabVIEW Overview

September 27, 2005 - LabVIEW is a graphical development environment for creating flexible and scalable test, measurement, and control applications rapidly. A representative from National Intruments will be on campus on Thursday, October 6, to demonstrate how LabVIEW can help engineers and scientists interface with real-world signals, analyze data for meaningful information, and share results and applications. From 3 to 5 p.m. in Winnett Lounge (above the bookstore). Refreshments will be provided. More...

New E-mail Worms Send Convincing-Looking "Caltech" Messages

June 27, 2005 - The "mytob" family of worms continues to proliferate rapidly, with new variants appearing daily. The messages generated by this worm are intended to convince recipients to click on an included malicious attachment or on the URL for a malicious website in order to prevent their account from being suspended, password changed, or other such actions taken "for security reasons." The e-mail "from" address, and even the URL as displayed, may appear to be valid Caltech addresses and websites. ITS does not send users unexpected e-mail attachments under any circumstances. More...

New Computer Worm Variants Generate Convincing-looking Email

June 10, 2005 - The "mytob" family of worms is proliferating rapidly, with many new variants being released. One variant is especially troublesome because its messages include a malicious web URL, rather than any executable attachments. This can allow it to evade detection by antivirus software. The accompanying messages are intended to convince recipients that they must visit this website (or, with some variants, open the accompanying attachment) to prevent their account from being suspended "for security reasons." The "from" address and even the URL as displayed may appear to be caltech.edu addresses. More...

New Application Training

March 23, 2005 - During the months of April and May, ITS will be offering Microsoft Office 2003 suite, Visio 2003, and Project 2003 training courses. These courses will help you leverage the powerful new features of Microsoft products more effectively. Each course offers intensive and comprehensive training in a small-class environment. "Learn by doing" in an environment where you can ask questions, collaborate with others, and share experiences. Every person who attends a course will receive a course book and a 128 MB USB Flash drive so you can save your work and course samples to use back at your computer. More...

ITS Dial-up Service Interruption on Monday

September 9, 2004 - The ITS network dial-up servers and phone circuits will be moved to another building Monday, September 13, starting at 6 a.m. While ITS and the telephone service provider will work to bring the service up as soon as possible, the outage may last up to 12 hours. If you have a system set up to dial in automatically (to read email, for example), you may want to turn off that feature on September 13. This outage will affect the local dial-up numbers as well as the 800 number. We appreciate your patience and understanding. Please email network@caltech.edu for any questions or concerns. More...

ITS Login Problems

August 12, 2004 - If you started having problems logging in to ITS services or getting your ITS email at approximately 4pm on August 11, please visit the ITS home page, www.its.caltech.edu, for instructions on how to resolve the problem. More...

Prolific New Windows Worm Necessitates a Reinstall! Protect Your System Now

April 28, 2004 - Some prolific new Windows-based worms struck campus systems last week and are still circulating. To protect your system: Run Windows Update on your Windows systems, and get all critical security patches installed. At least one vector used by these worms involves Windows operating system vulnerabilities for which patches are available. Also run Norton Antivirus LiveUpdate to get your virus definition list updated. See http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.gaobot.afj.html and http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.sasser.d.html for some details about two common versions. More...

Virus Alert

March 2, 2004 - If you receive a message claiming to be from the "Caltech.edu team" do NOT open any attachment that is included with it. These messages are generated by a prolific new virus that tries to trick the recipient into opening the infected attachment, faking the "from" address and also claiming to be from the "xxx team" where "xxx" is the recipient's domain (e.g., mail to user@caltech.edu would say it's from "the Caltech.edu team"). This particular virus is Beagle.J, but there will probably be more that use this technique. Never open an unexpected email attachment. Confirm with the sender first.

ITS to Upgrade E-Mail System - Important Information

October 6, 2003 - From the evening of October 11 to the morning of October 12, ITS will be upgrading its e-mail system. Most people who read their mail using an ITS system will not have to do anything special, but we strongly urge everyone in the Caltech community using the ITS mail services to read and bookmark the page linked to the title of this announcement. If you are a POP protocol user (you read e-mail by using a program like Eudora, Outlook, or Netscape Mail), please shut down any running copies of those programs before Saturday evening and don't restart it until Sunday afternoon. More...

Ongoing Serious Windows Security Issues

September 12, 2003 - The DCOM service in all WinNT/WinXP/Win2K systems has critical security issues resulting in widespread infected and hacked PCs. Due to sheer volume, we can't always contact owners of blocked systems quickly. If your PC has lost network access, please contact ITS to learn if it was blocked for security reasons. See the link for details, including NEW problems with DCOM unknown before 9/10. More...