E-mail slowdown due to record highs, spammers

A week ago, a noticeable slowdown began occurring when reading central e-mail at K-State. Mondays are typically the busiest e-mail days, but yesterday's e-mail traffic was almost 20 percent higher than the previous Monday -- and roughly 50 percent higher than the monthly average of e-mail traffic. Computing and Network Services has been doing constant monitoring and is investigating several solutions to improve performance.

Heavier loads of spamming are also contributing to loss of e-mail performance. To address this, staff are manually monitoring e-mail systems and blocking recognized spammers until the current upgrade of spam filters is complete.

Clarifications on AnnualCreditReport.com

Some questions have been raised about the AnnualCreditReport.com site featured in the Feb. 21 article in InfoTech Tuesday. More details on how that site works and its security features are presented here for clarification.

1. Consumers can request one report from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion -- every 12 months.

2. The free credit report does not include your credit score. You can purchase your credit score from annualcreditreport.com, or from the following companies:

• Equifax - www.equifax.com
• Experian - www.experian.com
• TransUnion - www.transunion.com

3. You may be asked for an account number or Social Security number for identity verification. Since this site is recommended by the Department of Homeland Security US-CERT and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), it is certainly secure. You will not be charged for a credit report. This is simply to filter out duplicate names from yours.

4. You may see information that is incorrect about yourself, including past addresses or employers. This does not mean the credit report is outdated. Any disputed information should be corrected by following the instructions provided on the report. This is why it is important to review your credit report on an annual basis.

If you have more questions or concerns, see AnnualCreditReport.com's Frequently Asked Questions.

Homepage tweaks make some links more prominent

On March 2, the K-State homepage layout was changed slightly to make KATS, K-State Online, and WebMail links more prominent in the left sidebar. Until single sign-on is available, the recommended way to get to those applications is to simply click on the links on the homepage.

College of Agriculture's new website uses CMS

After 18 months of planning, programming, and preparation, the College of Agriculture has a new website. The site, located at www.ag.ksu.edu, got its new look in January and includes information for future, current, and past College of Agriculture students, as well as faculty and staff.

"Websites are growing in importance as a recruitment tool. Research shows most high-school students are using the Web as part of their college selection process," said Fred Cholick, College of Agriculture dean and director of K-State Research and Extension. "By renovating our college and department websites, we can strengthen our recruitment efforts and attract more top-quality students to our college."

The new site is driven by a content management system (see Wikipedia's CMS entry) that makes it easier for faculty/staff to update their portions of the site and allows consistency in design and navigation. Questions and comments about the new site can be sent to kstateag@k-state.edu.

iLife '06 with free upgrades for three years

The K-State Student Union Computer Store recently made a one-time purchase of 100 copies of iLife '06 AMP licensing for K-State students, faculty/staff, and departments. AMP (the Apple Maintenance Program) allows purchasers to receive free upgrades of a product for a limited time. It is only available for the Mac OS X operating system. This special purchase provides iLife '06 on DVD plus the ability to download future iLife upgrades free through Jan. 8, 2009.

iLife '06 is a multimedia suite that includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand, and iWeb. The price is $49 (the same educational price as the boxed software) with future upgrades provided by the Union Computer Store.

This is especially attractive considering Apple has released a new version of iLife every year since 2003. Individuals will need to present an education ID to purchase this product. For complete details, contact the store at 532-7319, computerstore@k-state.edu.

IT by the numbers: InfoTech Tuesday newsletter

• 5,894 subscribers as of Feb. 14
• 50 weekly issues published per year
• earliest publication time: 9:03 a.m. (June 4, 2002)
• latest publication time: 11:57 p.m. (June 28, 2005)
• 212 issues in the newsletter archive
      (Dec. 4, 2001-Feb. 28, 2006)

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Managing editor:
     Betsy Edwards
Executive editor:
     Rebecca Gould

Popular IT

IT events
and deadlines

March 7 (Tue)
Audience response system demo.
4-5 p.m. Leasure 13

March 8 (Wed)
TechBytes: LISTSERV management. Open to the K-State community.
1:15 p.m. 501 Hale Library

March 14 (Tue)
CHECK conference revised deadline for proposals.

April
New student ID cards will be available for pickup.

April 12 (Wed)
TechBytes: Acrobat basics. Open to the K-State community.
1:15 p.m. 501 Hale Library

May 22 (Mon)
New student ID cards to take effect.

May 23-24
Annual CHECK conference will be at K-State this year.

June 30 (Fri)
Last day Windows 98/SE/ME/NT computers can connect to K-State's network.

Reinforcing deadlines.
How can instructors and students meet deadlines in an online course? Sometimes the virtual aspect of an online course makes it difficult to meet deadlines.

The absence of a regular meeting time for most asynchronous courses, the lack of an instructor's physical presence, and the "invisibility" of learners may make a course seem even less real. Strategies for reinforcing deadlines include:

Build deadline redundancy into the course. Reinforce the dates in the syllabus. Post a calendar with all relevant dates. Issue reminders in course Announcements.

For the first few weeks of the term, send e-mail prompts to learners to notify them of impending deadlines.

Encourage students to print their calendars and syllabi. Having a hard copy of the dates may help in their planning. Or encourage them to download the deadlines onto their PDAs.

Internet access for students living off-campus

How can a student living off-campus get Internet access in order to communicate with professors?

Students in an apartment complex or renting a house in town need to check with the manager/owner about a commercial Internet Service Provider such as Cox or SBC (listed in the telephone Yellow Pages). They also can dial in to K-State's campus network. For either service there is a fee.

To learn more about K-State's dial-in service, see Telecommunications' dial-in services. To learn more about connecting to K-State, see New to IT at K-State. For more information about connectivity or assistance with information technology, call the IT Help Desk at (785) 532-7722.

Debunking some common (cyber security) myths

[Editor's note: This security document is reprinted in its entirety with permission from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) website.]

There are some common myths that may influence your online security practices. Knowing the truth will allow you to make better decisions about how to protect yourself.

How are these myths established?

There is no one cause for these myths. They may have been formed because of a lack of information, an assumption, knowledge of a specific case that was then generalized, or some other source. As with any myth, they are passed from one individual to another, usually because they seem legitimate enough to be true.

Why is it important to know the truth?

While believing these myths may not present a direct threat, they may cause you to be more lax about your security habits. If you are not diligent about protecting yourself, you may be more likely to become a victim of an attack.

What are some common myths, and what is the truth behind them?

• Myth: Anti-virus software and firewalls are 100% effective.
  Truth: Anti-virus software and firewalls are important elements to protecting your information (see Understanding Anti-Virus Software and Understanding Firewalls for more information). However, neither of these elements are guaranteed to protect you from an attack. Combining these technologies with good security habits is the best way to reduce your risk.

• Myth: Once software is installed on your computer, you do not have to worry about it anymore.
  Truth: Vendors may release patches or updated versions of software to address problems or fix vulnerabilities (see Understanding Patches for more information). You should install the patches as soon as possible; some software even offers the option to obtain updates automatically. Making sure that you have the latest virus definitions for your anti-virus software is especially important.

• Myth: There is nothing important on your machine, so you do not need to protect it.
  Truth: Your opinion about what is important may differ from an attacker's opinion. If you have personal or financial data on your computer, attackers may be able to collect it and use it for their own financial gain. Even if you do not store that kind of information on your computer, an attacker who can gain control of your computer may be able to use it in attacks against other people (see Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks and Understanding Hidden Threats: Rootkits and Botnets for more information).

• Myth: Attackers only target people with money.
  Truth: Anyone can become a victim of identity theft. Attackers look for the biggest reward for the least amount of effort, so they typically target databases that store information about many people. If your information happens to be in the database, it could be collected and used for malicious purposes. It is important to pay attention to your credit information so that you can minimize any potential damage (see Preventing and Responding to Identity Theft for more information).

• Myth: When computers slow down, it means that they are old and should be replaced.
  Truth: It is possible that running newer or larger software programs on an older computer could lead to slow performance, but you may just need to replace or upgrade a particular component (memory, operating system, cd or dvd drive, etc.). Another possibility is that there are other processes or programs running in the background. If your computer has suddenly become slower, you may be experiencing a denial-of-service attack or have spyware on your machine (see Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks and Recognizing and Avoiding Spyware for more information).

Produced 2006 by US-CERT, a government organization. Terms of use. This document can be found at www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST06-002.html.