Information Technology

Information Technology is beginning implementation of a new Microsoft Exchange 2010 server that will modernize our communication capabilities on campus!  This project has been in the planning phase for several months and we are proud to announce that we are about to begin the implementation phase of the project.  Our new Exchange 2010 server offers many new features and solves many problems we have been experiencing over the past year with our 10 year old email servers.  Macintosh users will be excited to know that they will be able to utilize the Mac Outlook 2011 client with support for contacts, calendars and many other features not currently available to Entourage.  System stability will be greatly improved.  Other great new tools and features will be rolled out after the initial migration.

We will begin making system changes tomorrow – Wednesday 3/14/2012.  We do not anticipate any interruption of service.  These changes enable a 30 day testing period.  After the new system is deemed stable — the transition of mailboxes from the old Exchange 2003 servers to the new Exchange 2010 servers will take 75 days.  During the transition period (April-June), you will be notified of changes or outages affecting your email account.  The planned completion of all email accounts to the new system  is June 30, 2012.

The College of Charleston will host a High Performance Computing Forum on February 14, 2012 at 10:30 am in Room 100 of the Science Center.  The presentation will provide an overview of high performance computing, technologies for hpc, application to research, and best practices.

Guests will include:

Marc Hamilton – Vice President – HPC

Bryan Marler – HPC Specialist

Mark Hill – HPC Solution Architect

Kurt Schmidt – Higher Ed / Health Care Account Manager

Effective Jan. 28, 2012, Spirit Communications will make changes in the State of SC calling card service.  All calls that originate domestically, anywhere within the 50 States, will continue to be processed and billed, whether the calls terminate within the United States or Internationally.  HOWEVER,  Spirit will NO longer support calling card calls that originate from a foreign county as of January 28, 2012.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines phishing as “Fraud perpetrated on the Internet; spec. the impersonation of reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.”

Everyday thousands of email messages are sent to and from the College of Charleston.  Unfortunately some of these messages are phishing, sent in hopes that you will respond with your login, password, or other personal information.  Phishers often use email as their preferred method of attack. The email will appear to have been sent from an authoritative source using a name like Helpdesk, Webmail Help Desk, Webmail Team, Webmaster, CofC Webmaster. The trick to identifying phishing is not just in the sender’s name or email address, but in what the email asks you to do. The email will typically request that you send your username and or password to the requestor by either replying to the email or visiting a website link included in the email. If you see any request for username or password in an email, you have got phishing. No department or unit at the College of Charleston will ever request your username and or password by email or phone.

If you see any of the following phrases in an email, you have phishing.  Please delete the message.

• You have exceeded the storage limit on your mailbox.  Please Copy/click the below link and fill the upgrade form.
• This is to inform you that you have exceeded your email quota limit of 325MB and you need to increase your email quota limit because in  less than 48 hours your email will be disable.  To increase your email quota limit to 2.2GB, , you must reply to this email immediately and enter your account details below.
• We regret to inform you that all PayPal Manager accounts are LOCKED.  Please download the file attached to this e-mail and follow the steps to re-activate it.

Help fight phishing by educating yourself to recognize these email scams and never responding to any request for your login and or password by email or phone.  Visit http://it.cofc.edu/security/phishing/ to learn more.

We are excited to announce the availability of Google Apps for College faculty and staff.  To request your account, login to MyCharleston and select the Request Your Google Apps Account channel on the Faculty or Employee tab.  Click the link to request your account and follow the instructions.

Google Apps include popular features like Calendar, Photos, Documents, Groups, Sites, Reader, and more. Please note that Google Apps for faculty and staff does not include Gmail.  Also, at this time Google+ is not yet available to Google Apps users, but Google is working hard to bring the features of Google+ to Apps users in the future.

Logging In

Once you have created your account, you can login at https://accounts.google.com/
Your login name is your full College email address (e.g. smithersw@cofc.edu).
Your password by default is the same password you use to login to MyCharleston.

Need Help?

Problem reports and questions should be directed to the Helpdesk at helpdesk@cofc.edu or 843.953.3375 for tracking and resolution.

More information is available on the Information Technology webpage at http://it.cofc.edu/accounts-email/google-apps/

October 2011 marks the eighth annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC). The College of Charleston community is encouraged to learn more about cyber security and how to stay safe online from phishing attacks, fraud, and other malicious activities.

Learn more about

• Phishing
• Antivirus and Malware
• Internet Safety and Security for College Students (PDF)
• Mobile Tips (PDF)
• Social Networking Tips (PDF)

College of Charleston students, faculty, and staff are frequently the target of phishing attacks which attempt to trick users into providing their login, password, id number, pin number, or other personal information. A phisher sends you an email that claims to be from a business or organization that you may deal with — for example, an Internet service provider (ISP), bank, online payment service, college or university, or even a government agency. The message may ask you to “update,” “validate,” or “confirm” your account information. Some phishing emails threaten a dire consequence if you don’t respond. The messages may request you to respond by email or direct you to a website that looks just like a legitimate organization’s site. But it isn’t. It’s a bogus site whose sole purpose is to trick you into divulging your personal information so the phishers can steal your identity, run up bills, send spam, or commit crimes in your name.

Responding to a phishing scam not only puts you and protected information at risk, but also impacts the entire campus.  Phishers will log into your account using the credentials you provided to send more spam and phishing attempts.  These messages trigger email and internet providers (Comcast, Yahoo, Knology, etc.) to block email from the College.  It can take days before these service providers will allow email from the College again.

If you receive a phishing message, treat it like spam and delete it.

Learn more about identifying phishing and protecting yourself at http://it.cofc.edu/security/phishing

The College’s online community has two new forums for OAKS users.  Targeted separately to students and faculty, each forum provides a community for discussion, questions and answers, and peer support for getting the most out of the OAKS learning management system.  Logon through the Community icon in MyCharleston or by going to http://community.cofc.edu.

Information Technology (IT) is investigating issues concerning the new OS X Lion operating system for Macintosh. Users can experience problems when attempting to access network servers. IT strongly advises users to refrain from upgrading to the Lion operating system at this time. IT is currently researching a solution for accessing College servers when using the OS X Lion operating system. For any questions please contact Helpdesk at helpdesk@cofc.edu or 953-3375 option #3.