Open forums for IT associate vice provost candidates
by B. Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Nov. 28, 2006
Four candidates will interview over the next two weeks for the position of
associate vice provost for academic services and information technology.
K-State faculty/staff are invited to attend these open forums.
- James Bradley -- 10:45 a.m. Friday, Dec. 1, Union Big 12
- Ronald Stauss -- 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6, Union Big 12
- James Lyall -- 10:45 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, Union Big 12
- Patrick Pow -- 10:45 a.m. Monday, Dec. 11, Union 212
Each candidate will give a 20-minute presentation on "Evolution from Computing to Information: How Can it be Accomplished?"
followed by a question-and-answer session. Ruth Dyer will be the moderator.
Electronic Grade Submission system opens Dec. 11; sign up now
by S. Silva, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Nov. 28, 2006
Save yourself some time this semester -- use the Electronic
Grade Submission system to enter and submit grades from any
place. You can even import grades from your K-State Online course.
The Electronic Grade Submission system is available beginning
8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 11, through 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20.
A screenshot from the Electronic Grade Submission system.
Sign up using the enrollment form.
Instructors and their designates must either attend one of the
scheduled orientation sessions or complete the online tutorial,
prior to noon Dec. 8. Don't miss out! Sign up now!
Trend Micro's quarantine process
by H. Townsend, interim IT security officer
published Nov. 28, 2006
When Trend Micro security software finds malware on your computer that it cannot repair, it removes
the malicious file from your computer to eliminate the danger and "quarantines" it on your departmental,
college, or central OfficeScan management server. When this happens, Trend Micro alerts you with a pop-up
window on your computer similar to this:
It is important that you pay attention to this alert because the information about the action taken,
as well as the quarantined file itself, are only retained for a relatively short period of time, depending on
how your antivirus administrator configured your OfficeScan client and server. For example, the central OfficeScan
servers only retain quarantined files for 30 days.
Keep in mind that files quarantined by Trend Micro are almost always malicious code -- and not Word documents,
Excel spreadsheets, or other useful documents. In the rare instance that a Word or Excel file is infected with
malware, Trend Micro typically repairs the file and leaves the clean file intact on your computer. It is extremely
rare that a useful file will get quarantined.
More details are on the new IT security page about
Trend Micro's quarantine process.
Dec. 1 is last day for IT award nominations
by the IT Awards and Recognition Committee
published Nov. 28, 2006
Friday, Dec. 1, is the deadline for nominating central IT employees for
their contributions to the university. Staff eligible for nominations are in
CTS,
DCE,
DIA,
ECC,
ISO,
iTAC,
KSRE, and
OME.
The nomination form is on the IT Awards and Recognition website.
Click on the word "Nominations" at the top of the page. A nomination can represent an activity, service, or
special contribution. Questions should be sent to ITAWARDS-L@k-state.edu.
Dreamweaver and CSS Exchange Workshop Dec. 5
by C. Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Nov. 28, 2006. updated 8:30 a.m. Nov. 29, 2006
This hands-on workshop -- scheduled 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday,
Dec. 5 -- is designed to be an informal forum for K-Staters to share
tips, expertise, and techniques with their peers and to learn
from other Dreamweaver users at K-State. The moderators will
share a few tips and encourage attendees to ask questions, share
their ideas and techniques, or lead a discussion. Initial topics
include:
- Photo Albums
- Creating and Styling Forms
This workshop will be one to two hours, depending upon the
discussion and topics being shared. See the
registration form
to register, submit ideas for discussion, or volunteer to lead a
topic discussion.
TechBytes survey: Topics needed for spring sessions
by C. Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published Nov. 28, 2006
TechBytes is designed to educate the campus community about
existing information technology tools and services and to share
future technology innovations. Your ideas for session topics are
needed for spring 2007. Take a few moments to share your IT and
computing needs by completing the short
TechBytes survey that's online through Dec. 19.
If you've missed a presentation this semester, see the TechBytes website
for a variety of resources such as streaming videos, handouts, and PowerPoint presentations.
Security tip: Learn more about malware when it infects your computer
by H. Townsend. interim IT security officer
published Nov. 28, 2006
Antivirus software cannot
always repair the damage when a computer gets infected with malware. Therefore, you may need to learn more about
the malware to fix your computer and prevent getting infected again. First, you'll
have to determine the name of the malware so you can look it up on the Internet.
When Trend Micro antivirus software detects malware on a computer, it displays a warning in a pop-up window
that identifies the malware in the "Virus Name" column. You also can find the name of the malware by viewing the
virus logs in Trend Micro OfficeScan. Once you have the name, search Trend Micro's
Virus Encyclopedia
or Spyware/Grayware database
for specific information.
Symantec Antivirus for Macintosh computers provides a similar warning and likewise records the infection in a
log file. Once you have the name, you can search Symantec's
Threat Explorer virus database.
For those who need more information, a Google search using the name of the malware can yield
helpful results. There's no standard naming convention, so your mileage will vary when using Google to research malware.
With Trend Micro, the first part of the name identifies the type of the malware. Some of the more common
prefixes are
| Malware name prefix | Type of malware |
| WORM_ | a worm (duh) |
| TROJ_ | a Trojan |
| SPYW_ | spyware |
| TSPY_ | Trojan spyware (malware with characteristics of both) |
| ADW_ | adware |
| PE_ | a virus that infects "Portable Exectuable" files (anything that ends in .EXE, for example) |
Trend Micro's glossary
defines some of these terms, as does
Symantec's glossary.
IT by the numbers: Trend Micro stats
by H. Townsend, interim IT security officer
published Nov. 28, 2006
From Oct. 22 through Nov. 21, K-State's Trend Micro security software recorded the following data
from the three central Trend Micro servers that support computers in K-State offices,
residence halls, the K-State InfoCommons, and university computing labs:
| Number | Trend Micro data |
| 6,617 | K-State computers running Trend Micro that are managed by the three central Trend Micro OfficeScan servers |
| 1,097 | K-State computers with at least one malware instance (16.6% of the computers managed by the three central servers) |
| 5,520 | K-State computers with no malware detected |
| 42,760 | Malware instances detected by Trend Micro |
| 1,109 | Unique types of malware detected |
| 20,807 | Infected files that Trend Micro was able to "clean" such that no data was lost. Trend Micro removed the malware and left the repaired file in place on the user's computer. This represents 49 percent of the total number of detected instances of malware |
| 13,522 | Files quarantined by Trend Micro |
| 8,341 | Files detected by Trend Micro to be a security risk but was not able to clean or quarantine (usually temporary files, or files in use or locked in some manner) |
| 18,488 | Most malware instances attributed to a single computer (due to two viruses that infect all .EXE, .OCR, and .SCR files on the computer) |
| 2,470 | Second most instances of malware on a single computer |
| 26,171 | Malware incidences attributed to the top 10 offenders |
| 14 | Infected Microsoft Word documents |
| 13 | Infected Word documents that Trend Micro was able to clean (no data loss) |
| 1 | Infected Word documents quarantined by Trend Micro (the file was lost) |
| 0 | Infected Microsoft Excel spreadsheets |
| 6.5 | Average number of malware instances per computer (including the 5,520 computers that had no malware) |
| 39.0 | Average number of malware instances per infected computer (only counting the 1,097 that had malware detected) |
| 15.1 | Average number of malware instances per infected computer when you remove the top 10 offenders from the total |
|
