Current Activities for February 2004

Staff are asked to be patient during our busiest time of the year.

Always at this time of the year the Technical Services Unit is under a great deal of pressure preparing for the new teaching year.

In addition to the normal run of helpdesk requests, some current activities are:

• Two labs are being upgraded (funding for which was only recently made available):
  • the ICT in Education student lab, and
  • the New Media Lab.
• New software images for both PCs and Macintosh computers have been or are being installed in teaching labs across the Division.
• New and replacement staff need to be set up with hardware, software and access to network services like email and file storage.
• New arrangements for sessional staff and other non-fulltime appointments need to be made in Building 5.
• Network storage and services for students in Media, Journalism and other specialist subjects must be configured and commissioned.
• The Division's Websites need to be updated and in some cases created in the UCOnline prescribed style.
• Network updates to support NILL need to be managed.
• Older desktop computers for staff (in particular AUVA PCs with bad service records and older Macintosh computers) are being progressively replaced with newer equipment. The AUVA computers are a particular concern since their power supplies are failing and we can't get replacements.

In all the TSU is vastly overstretched at the moment, so there will be inevitable delays in responding to requests. Staff are asked to be patient, and to submit requests via email wherever possible. It would also help if staff followed the procedures for submitting requests for resources: detailed on the TSU website.

Satellite dishes on Building 20

Progress on the installation of the infrastructure necessary to receive satellite television and radio services.

The ACT Planning and Land Authority has approved our proposal to erect four large satellite dishes on the roof of Building 20. The dishes are required to receive the signals necessary for us to reticulate satellite television and radio services around the Division. A fifth, smaller, dish, required to receive signals from one of the Optus satellites distributing program material around the country, does not require planning approval.

The proposal now must go to the Buildings and Site Committee for its approval before installation can proceed. This committee is due to meet sometime in early March, and subject to its approval work can begin in earnest shortly after that.

See also the draft list of the services to be available after the work is completed.

Out from the Ashes

The Division helps out a local effort to rehabitate wildlife after the firestorm.

The Division of Communication and Education's Graduate Assistant helped out with the shooting and editing of Out from the Ashes, a short film by Elisabet Engel to celebrate the return of nature after the Canberra firestorm. It was launched at a public screening at Canberra's Albert Hall on 11 February 2004 by local MLA Bill Stephaniak.

The film is to be available on DVD, with all the proceeds going to the RSPCA to help with wildlife rehabitation.

MyDoom virus attack

There have been an unprecedent number of virus-laden emails travelling around the world since Monday.

This week's Windows virus attack, MyDoom or Novarg, is an attempt by the virus writer to set up an attack against the servers of a company called SCO. SCO is claiming it owns parts of the code for Linux and is requiring Linux vendors to pay SCO a licence fee.

MyDoom comes as an email attachment with one of seven subject lines, including Error, Hello, Mail delivery system, Status, Test, or even a randomly generated series of characters. When the attachment containing the virus code is opened it uses Notepad to display rubbish text, it searches for email addresses on the infected computer, and sends itself to those email addresses. The address from which the email containing the virus appears to have been sent is chosen randomly from the email addresses it finds on the infected computer, so if your email address has been used in this way you will receive messages saying for example that your email has bounced or it wasn't delivered because it contained a virus, when you didn't send the email in the first place.

For more information about the virus visit Computer Associates, F-Secure or Sophos.

If you have opened an attachment that you think may contain the virus, please shut down your computer and contact the comedu helpdesk immediately.

Fraudulent Bank Email Messages

Fraudulent bank email messages to University email accounts appearing to be from the Commonwealth or Westpac banks, are not valid.

Financial institutions around the world have always been subject to attempts by criminals to try and defraud money from them and their customers. These attempts can occur in a number of ways (eg credit card fraud, telephone banking or Internet scams).

Two examples of common Internet scams include:

• Attempting to steal a customer's login details by sending out emails which appear to be from a financial institution, and requesting personal details (eg Customer number and password)
• Creating a website, which looks similar to a financial institution's, but acts as a 'ghost website' capturing customer details and using them to transact on the customer's account

Following are a number of quick and easy methods to help you protect your details online.

• Check you are connected to a legitimate website
• Check your email has come from a legitimate source
• Protect your financial records
• Protect your computer
• Keep your password safe
• Guard your privacy