New e-mail publicity scam targets K-State faculty
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published July 5, 2005
Media Relations recently distributed a morning news release by one of K-State's most-frequently-quoted experts.
That afternoon, the faculty member was targeted by a company offering to distribute the same news release for a fee.
This is an unethical practice -- and a scam.
No reputable news-distribution service solicits business directly from faculty sources.
When Media Relations sends out a news release, it is effectively distributed to local, regional, and
national media as appropriate. Media Relations works with several highly reputable news-distribution
services and provides this service to K-Staters free of charge.
K-State faculty who are contacted by a company outside K-State offering to distribute a release that features their
research should simply delete the e-mail as they would any spam. Send questions to
media@k-state.edu.
More Windows systems to be barred
from network in 2006
by the K-State Security Incident Response Team
published July 5, 2005
Computers with Windows 95 or earlier versions of Microsoft
Windows are currently not allowed on K-State's network due to security issues.
These older systems are either not supported by Microsoft anymore
and/or are unable to run required security software.
For the same reasons, more Windows systems will be barred from the campus network next year, so now is
a good time to begin planning upgrades.
After June 30, 2006, Microsoft will no longer provide security patches for the following
versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Likewise, K-State's Symantec AntiVirus software will not
be supported on these operating systems, hence they will not be allowed to connect to the K-State network:
- Windows 98
- Windows 98SE
- Windows ME
- Windows NT
About those K-State IT projects
by B. Edwards, Computing and Network Services
published July 5, 2005
Last week's article
("A brief summary of IT projects at K-State this summer")
prompted several readers to ask for more details. A few project links have already been added to that article.
More details about those projects will be featured in upcoming issues, starting with these:
- Enterprise Project Management (EPM) is
"a structured approach to planning for and working through projects that provides information
to facilitate informed decision making. EPM provides a mechanism for the measurement and analysis of a
consistent set of variables such as resource utilization, project costs, and capital investments across projects."
- K-State's portal project is scheduled to be released this summer.
It will enhance K-State's web presence and provide a single point for access to all of K-State's web-based services.
At first it will allow customized student, faculty, and staff views and eventually allow individual customization.
See InfoTech Tuesday's
March 15 article.
- Single Sign-On (SSO) for the university is the ability to type in a K-State eID and password to
gain access to multiple K-State websites. SSO was a planned feature of the portal but became
a project of its own since it provides authentication for many web-based applications. The first core
projects to use SSO will be KATS, K-State Online, WebMail, eProfile, and the K-State portal.
- The Transaction Hub project for the university
will provide real-time data integration between K-State computer systems. See InfoTech Tuesday's
Jan. 13, 2004, overview.
- Situational competency, simulations, and lessons learned for food and agricultural bio-terrorism.
This project is funded by the Department of Defense's
Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) as a grant to the
National Agricultural Biosecurity Center (NABC) at K-State. The project develops
IT tools to be used by "agricultural first-responders" to prepare for and respond to agricultural disasters.
New website for Operation PC 2005
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published July 5, 2005
Plans are under way for Operation PC 2005, a security event for students living in the residence halls
to make them part of the managed computing environment. When students arrive on campus,
they will go to one of the kiosks located in the residence halls and install
Symantec AntiVirus, patch their computer, run antispyware, and set a strong
administrative password. For more information and links, see the new
Operation PC website.
LASER Newsflash summer 2005 issue online
by A. Hagedorn, Information Technology Assistance Center
published July 5, 2005
The summer 2005 edition of the online LASER newsletter is available now. Learn
about the new Financial Information System (FIS) that went live July 1,
and find out who joined the LASER team this summer. Bookmark the
LASER Newsflash homepage
and visit the laser.ksu.edu website.
| Q/A: IT questions from K-Staters |
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published July 5, 2005
Where are the FAQs for FIS training?
They're on the FIS section of the Controller's Office website, at
www.ksu.edu/controller/systems/fis.
Have a question or comment?
TellTuesday@ksu.edu.
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| Web watch |
Technologically advanced hotel in Slovenia
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published July 5, 2005
In June, K-State traveler Ernie Perez (in iTAC)
discovered the Domina Grand Media Ljubljana
hotel in Slovenia, which claims to be "the most technologically advanced hotel in the world". It has a full
fiber-optic network connecting all the rooms, and each hotel room has
- Videoconferencing capabilities
- Free phone calls to 43 different countries (via IP telephony).
- 42-inch plasma TV display (the remote control also opened the door and turned lights on/off)
- Free wireless Internet for personal PCs or for use on the plasma displays
"The room rate was a steal at $80 per night," said Perez.
Find a good site? TellTuesday@ksu.edu.
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