K-State default spam setting lowered
by J. Morrill, Computing and Telecommunications Services
published Jan. 23, 2007
Since August 2004, e-mail coming to a K-State address has been
inspected and tagged for spam.
The default setting has been 5 but is being lowered to 3.5 at
12:01 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 25. This
means a message only has to total 3.5 "points" to be considered spam
and moved into your Junk folder. If you haven't already lowered your
spam sensitivity, this means you'll see less spam in your Inbox.
As always, you should check your Junk folder routinely to ensure
e-mail you want to see isn't being moved there by mistake. If you
find good e-mail in your Junk folder, you can add that address to your
"accept list" (via your eProfile).
(A future article will cover tips for not making your e-mail appear as spam.)
This is only the default setting for K-State e-mail. If you're still getting
too much spam, you can lower the spam setting even further. If the spam
filters are too aggressive and you're afraid you're missing e-mail
you want to see, then you can raise your spam setting.
To change it, go to your eProfile page
and choose the level that works best for you.
E-mail forwarding: Another battle front in the spam wars
by J. Morrill, Computing and Telecommunications Services
published Jan. 23, 2007
Starting this semester, if you have your eID set to forward to another
e-mail address and don't take care of that address, K-State will remove your
forwarding. As an example, if your eID is set to forward your e-mail to
your AOL account and then you mark it as spam, we will contact you
twice to ask you to fix this yourself. The third time, we will disable
your e-mail forwarding.
K-State currently allows anyone with an eID to set it so their e-mail is
forwarded to another e-mail address. There are several valid reasons
for wanting to do this, including keeping your K-State e-mail address
after you are no longer eligible to access an e-mail mailbox on
campus (for instance, if you are no longer a student or employee).
Some large, commercial e-mail providers allow their users to mark
incoming e-mail as spam so it's moved to a Junk folder. If enough of
their users mark e-mail from one site as spam, that provider will restrict
or refuse incoming e-mail from that site. See Use spam-filtering on forwarded e-mail
(InfoTech Tuesday, June 20, 2006) to see how this can impact anyone at K-State trying
to send e-mail to that site.
Thefts of technology equipment on campus
by E. Unger, Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Services and Technology
published Jan. 23, 2007
Departments and colleges are increasingly experiencing thefts of technology
equipment across campus. During the fall semester, the Manhattan campus lost four
Apple laptop computers, four Dell flat-panel monitors,
two LCD projectors, two 1-terabyte hard drives, one PDA, one keyboard, one microphone, one high-end camera,
and an LCD display (which required a saw or bolt cutters to remove it). This is the short list.
The following were suggested by the K-State police and information
technology staff to deter theft:
- Maintain accurate records of all hardware and software, including a
picture of the equipment, serial numbers, etc. (With laptops or PCs,
remember to record the IP and MAC address). Full details would then be
available if something is stolen, and those can be entered correctly in the NCIC database.
- Control access to rooms with high-tech equipment, using a security
access control panel or key control that reports back to the police department.
- Engrave the name of the department, college, or "Kansas State University"
on the front of expensive equipment.
- Install security cables on equipment that is not typically protected.
Consider using locks that when tripped will sound an alarm.
- Keep us posted on theft in your unit.
IDT Roundtable Jan. 25: "The Online Instructor's Best Friend: The Amazingly Versatile Adobe PDF"
by S. Mukherjee, Office of Mediated Education
published Jan. 23, 2007
The Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) Roundtable Series
starts off with "The Online Instructor's Best Friend: The Amazingly Versatile Adobe PDF" at 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 25, in Union 212. Meet the document format that very nearly can do it all. Expect to see
step-by-step explanations on document creation, commenting tools, accessibility, multimedia, and simple forms
by Ben Ward, instructional designer in the Office of Mediated Education.
Registration and refreshments start at 10:45 a.m. RSVP by contacting the
Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning at 785-532-7828, catl@k-state.edu.
Invitation to preview, provide feedback on Survey System 3.0
by S. Finkeldei, Office of Mediated Education
published Jan. 23, 2007
iTAC and
OME
would like to invite you to attend a hands-on overview and feedback session for the upcoming version of the
Survey System, scheduled for release in mid-March. Attendees will be able to try the new tools and options and
provide feedback so we can make any final improvements before the release. Two sessions are available:
- Wednesday, Jan. 31, 1:30-3 p.m. Fairchild 202
- Thursday, Feb. 1, 9:30-11 a.m. Fairchild 202
Please register to attend one of these sessions,
so we can plan for the number of people. Many updates and improvements suggested by users
have been completed for this release, including:
- Management of your Survey Listing page
- Ability to share survey creation and management with other users
- Option to add images to survey properties such as the survey introduction
- Ability to copy lists of respondents for use in other surveys
- New question type -- semantic differential
- Ability to add or remove respondents after the survey has been offered
- New neutral page design
- Better online reports and more statistics about your survey offerings
- Rich text editor to allow formatting of questions
- Ability to create headings in survey pages for section labeling
DCE, OME switch from Groupwise to K-State Calendar
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published Jan. 23, 2007
In early January, the Division of Continuing Education and the Office of Mediated
Education migrated from Groupwise Calendar to
K-State Calendar, the university's
central calendar system. This should make it easier for other campus personnel to schedule
meetings with the staff in those units.
Security tip: Patch, patch, patch
by H. Townsend. interim IT security officer
published Jan. 23, 2007
Statistics published recently about the number of vulnerabilities reported
last year underscores the need to patch, or frequently update operating system and software applications to fix known security problems.
The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination
Center at Carnegie-Mellon University processed reports on 8,064 vulnerabilities in 2006, a 35 percent increase over 2005.
That's 672 a month, or 155 a week, or 22 a day, or about one new vulnerability reported every hour.
This increase is similar to results reported by others who track vulnerabilities, according to a recent article
titled "Vulnerability tallies surged in 2006" by Robert Lemos of SecurityFocus:
| Source |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
| CERT/CC |
8,064 |
5,990 |
3,780 |
3,784 |
4,129 |
2,437 |
| NVD |
6,604 |
4,877 |
2,367 |
1,281 |
1,959 |
1,672 |
| OSVDB |
8,500+* |
7,187 |
4,629 |
2,632 |
2,184 |
1,656 |
| Symantec |
4,883 |
3,766 |
2,691 |
2,676 |
2,604 |
1,472 |
Sources: Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC),
National Vulnerability Database (NVD), Open-Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB), and the Symantec Vulnerability Database.
IT by the numbers: Spam-related stats
by the editors, InfoTech Tuesday
published Jan. 23, 2007
- 1 percent of K-Staters have changed their personal spam-filtering settings since 2004.
- 93 percent of all e-mail on the Internet in December 2006 was spam, according to Postini.com's
Jan. 10 press release. The company
blocked more than 25 billion spam messages that month.
- More spam-related stats and historical trends can be found in the "Statistics and estimates" section of Wikipedia's
E-mail Spam page.
|
