Student Printing Services Will be Unavailable on June 3

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Student printing services will be unavailable all day on Tuesday, June 3, 2014, in order to perform server-side enhancements and help Stony Brook work towards enabling mobile printing, which is a top request by students. Once this upgrade is complete, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) can begin testing out mobile printing solutions.

Affected Services:

Student printing on campus
Print From Anywhere

Affected Locations:

Campus Residences
HSC
SINC Sites
South Campus
Southampton
Stand alone printers – Biomedical Engineering

If you need to print on June 3, you may do so at one of the UPS Store locations on West Campus * using Wolfie Wallet, credit card, or cash:

Melville Library, Lower Level, Room 0320 (down the hall from the Bookstore)
Student Union Lobby

* UPS charges for printing are as follows:

B & W 8 1/2 x 11: 4 cents a page / 8 cents double sided
Color: 8 1/2 x 11: 39 cents a page / 78 cents double sided

For More Information Contact

Instructional Technology Support

tlt@stonybrook.edu

(631) 632-2777

DoIT Calls for NetID Password Changes in Response to Heartbleed Bug

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Stony Brook University's Heartbleed NetID Password Change Poster

Help us spread the word by downloading, printing, and hanging up the poster in your area.

CIO Cole Camplese issued the following campus announcement on April 15, urging everyone to change their NetID passwords as a result of the Heartbleed Bug …

To the Campus Community:

Good afternoon. Due to our current understanding of the Heartbleed Bug that has impacted the majority of the Internet, I wanted to provide you with a brief update on our progress and immediate next steps. We have no evidence that any Stony Brook University system or user credentials have been exploited by the Heartbleed Bug. However, we feel in order to protect your data and the institution’s data and out of an abundance of caution, you should change your Stony Brook NetID password.

To change your Stony Brook NetID password, please follow these directions carefully:

http://it.stonybrook.edu/help/kb/changing-your-netid-password

To stay connected to updated Heartbleed Bug information, to get immediate help or support in the password change process, and to review what has been done to date at Stony Brook University, please visit:

http://you.stonybrook.edu/heartbleed

Cole W. Camplese
Vice President for Information Technology & CIO
Stony Brook University

Security Alert: OpenSSL “Heartbleed” Bug

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Several media outlets reported a serious vulnerability in OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive) called “The Heartbleed Bug,” on April 7, 2014. This represents a serious Web security flaw that may compromise privacy. Please see the following news articles and websites which describe the issue in greater detail:

If you run a Web server with SSL (specifically OpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f), it is recommended that you patch the software immediately and upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. If you’re stuck with a previous version of OpenSSL for some reason, you can block the vulnerability by re-compiling it using the OPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS flag. OpenSSL 1.0.2 will have the bug fixed in the upcoming 1.0.2-beta2 release. If you do not know what version of SSL you are running, go to https://sslanalyzer.comodoca.com and enter your site’s URL to find out if the site is vulnerable.

Additionally, if you have contracted with any vendors who use SSL, please contact them immediately to find out if they have applied the current patches and to find out what other steps may be required.

One of the side effects of this vulnerability is that the server private key may be compromised and there may be no trace of it. In this case, after patching, please generate new keypairs and request a new certificate. DoIT will provide a new Comodo/Incommon certificate to its Stony Brook IT Partners at no cost if they just email the CSR to certreq@stonybrook.edu.

DoIT is actively monitoring the situation here at Stony Brook and has contacted its vendors about any vendor-supplied software.

Stony Brook’s SOLAR, PeopleSoft, Blackboard, and Google Apps for Education systems are not affected by this vulnerability. Other systems accessed with your Stony Brook NetID and NetID password are not affected.

Individual users may want to consider changing the passwords on all their sensitive Internet accounts, such as banking accounts, private email accounts, and any accounts created for online shopping with the use of credit card information. However, the New York Times Bits blog suggests waiting a day or two to allow time for websites to get patched.

DoIT has created a public Yammer group to provide the campus community with updates as this situation unfolds and develops. Please post your questions and comments to the Heartbleed Bug Info Yammer group.

SUNY’s Spring 2014 Educational Enterprise Purchase (EEP) Offerings Announced

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

SUNY is conducting a Spring Educational Enterprise Purchase (EEP) program of technology hardware with participation from Apple, Dell, and IBM. The program will run through the end of June 2014. This is a system-wide initiative led by SUNY in Albany. Details regarding this program are outlined below. Hardware offerings and pricing can be found in the attached documents. Please contact Stony Brook University’s Vendor Manager Michael Ospitale at (631) 632-6685 for any further questions about the SUNY Educational Enterprise Purchases (EEP) Program.

Dell

Spring Education Enterprise Purchase offering from Dell will run through June 30, 2014. The Dell pricing is available at discounts better than New York State and higher education pricing. All products listed on this promotion may be purchased direct through Dell or via a reseller (on the OGS contract) with the exception of the SonicWall products which have to be purchased through a reseller.

View Hardware Offerings and Pricing: Dell_2014_Spring_SUNY_Big_Buy (.pdf)

Please contact Peter Griffin, Large Institution Sales Manager, with any questions.
Phone: 484-431-1276
Email: Peter_Griffin1@Dell.com

Apple

Spring Education Enterprise Purchase offering from Apple will run through June 28, 2014. The Apple pricing is available at discounts better than New York State and higher education pricing.

View Hardware Offerings and Pricing: Apple_SUNY_Spring_2014_pricing (.pdf)

Please contact Christine Young, your Apple Education Inside Account Executive, with any questions.

Phone: 512-674-6841

Email: christine_young@apple.com

IBM

Spring Education Enterprise Purchase offering from IBM will run through June 30, 2014. The IBM pricing is available at discounts better than New York State and higher education pricing. All products listed on this promotion may be purchased direct through IBM or via a reseller (on the OGS contract).

View Hardware Offerings and Pricing: IBM_SUNY_EEP_Spring2014 (.pdf)

Please contact Michele Richens, the Power Scale Out ISV Sales Specialist, with any questions.

Phone: 518-487-6183

Email: mrichens@us.ibm.com

Spring Education Enterprise Purchase offering from HP that will run through July 31, 2014. The HP pricing is available at discounts better than New York State and higher education pricing. All products listed on this promotion may be purchased direct through HP or via a reseller (on the OGS contract).

In addition, HP will be holding a webinar to showcase their offering. Details will be sent to campuses as soon as the webinar is finalized.

View Hardware Offerings and Pricing: HP Spring 2014 pricing_v 5 0 (.xlsx)

Please contact Drew Todd, Inside Account Manager, with any questions.
Phone: 800-277-8988 ext 7716021
Email: drew.todd@hp.com

RFSUNY Oracle Shutdown Planned for April 25 – May 5

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

RFSUNY’s Oracle e-business suite and related reporting applications will undergo a major upgrade from version 11i to 12. To implement this upgrade, it is necessary to shut down the Oracle Business System for five business days beginning at the close of business on Friday, April 25 until Monday, May 5, at 9 a.m.

Windows XP and Office 2003 Reaching End of Support on April 8

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Sanjay Kapur, DoIT’s Director of Systems and Operations, received the following email Windows XP logo from Microsoft regarding product retirements. Windows XP and Office 2003 will be reaching end of support on April 8, 2014. According to Microsoft, reaching “end of support” means customers will still be able to run the software, but Microsoft will no longer provide security updates or update online content. In short, you will be on your own for support and will be essentially accepting all risk if you decide to continue using unsupported software.

DoIT highly recommends that departments and individuals stay up-to-date on latest versions of operating systems and software. Please visit our Institutional Software Support page for a list of recommended standards. In some cases, computers may need to be upgraded due to hardware restrictions. To purchase a replacement computer that meets University standards, please see DoIT’s list of recommended systems.

2014 Future of Open Source Survey Results

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Here is the slide deck from a webinar I participated in today about the future of open source. They needed a higher ed spokesperson and I got nominated by Acquia, the company handling our Drupal web hosting. Pretty interesting to hear how attitudes about open source have changed over the years.

Save the Date: VMware Technology Update on April 11

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

There will be a VMware update session on Friday, April 11, from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in Wang Center, Room 301. To register, please follow the instructions at the bottom of this DoIT Event notice.

School of Journalism Transforms iPad into a Satellite Truck

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

School of Journalism’s Phil Altiere presenting at the Content and Communications World Expo in NYC on Nov. 12-13, 2014.

Congratulations to IT Partner Philip Altiere, an instructional support technician in the School of Journalism, for his creativity in helping Stony Brook students use iPads to produce live broadcasts at Wolfstock last fall. Phil wrote the following guest blog for EdTech Digest about the experience that was just published on March 12. He and his students were also invited to present their technique at the Content and Communications World (CCW) Expo at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City last November. Way to innovate!

Support for Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server Ending Next Year

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Kerrin.Perniciaro@stonybrook.edu

Google announced that it will be ending support for the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server on March 5, 2015. This will affect any Google Apps user with a BlackBerry OS 7 or older device connecting to Google Apps with a BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0.3.

Read the full announcement on the Google Apps blog.