• March 11, 2008

No IT newsletter during spring break

by Betsy Edwards, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

The InfoTech Tuesday newsletter will not be published next week during spring break. Publication resumes March 25. This is a good time to clean out and catch up on IT presentations, tools, and other resources.

  • Check out free web resources such as PBwiki, Zoho, Google Tools, and Videopedia.
  • Clean out your e-mail and files, and update your address book.
  • Watch previous IDT presentations about YouTube, best educational videos, and more.
  • Watch TechBytes videos you may have missed this spring on password security, Adobe Connect web conferencing, Zoho's tool suite, Google tools, podcasting, and Second Life.

Impact of last week's scam e-mail at K-State

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published March 11, 2008

Wednesday evening, March 5, K-State's central e-mail service slowed to a crawl and people couldn't log in to WebMail because our servers were being used to send 100,000 spam messages to unsuspecting recipients around the world. This resulted in Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL blacklisting K-State's e-mail servers, refusing to accept any e-mail from us.

Why did this happen? Because one person replied to last week's scam e-mail and provided their eID password, which was then used by hackers to log in to K-State's WebMail from Nigeria and send massive amounts of spam.

In the last six weeks, K-State has been the target of at least four spear phishing attacks that tried to trick people into divulging their eID password. In this latest round, more than 800 K-Starters received the scam e-mail purporting to be from "K-State IT Admin <upgrade@ksu.edu>". Four people are known to have replied with their password and two of those compromised accounts were used to send spam, including the one mentioned above that wreaked havoc on our e-mail system that evening.

If you replied to any of these scam e-mails and provided your password, immediately read today's security tip on Fast steps to follow if you responded to a scam e-mail and protect your online resources.

This illustrates the impact one person can have on the campus community and underscores the need for everyone at K-State to accept personal responsibility for the security of their accounts, the computers they use, and the data they access. Security is not just the realm of IT security officers and support personnel -- it is everyone's responsibility.

RSS feeds for new books at K-State Libraries

by Dale Askey, K-State Libraries
published March 11, 2008

K-State Libraries offers RSS feeds of items newly added to our catalog, both by subject and by medium. The lists can be viewed as webpages, or one can pick up the RSS feed and read it in the feedreader of their choice.

For anyone with wider (or narrower) interests that aren't met by the existing feeds, you can request a custom feed. Just tell us what topics interest you, and we'll craft a feed and share the address only with you. All feeds, custom or general, update every Saturday night, so on Monday morning you have a list to review that week. This is a great way to keep up with what the library has in areas of professional or personal interest.

Mark your calendars for IT events after spring break

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

Add these events to your calendars, and watch for more information in the March 25 newsletter after spring break.

Cathy Rodriguez will present an eTips session on "Online task management made simple!" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, desktop webinar via Wimba. Do you find it difficult to manage all your task or to-do lists? Join this session to explore Remember the Milk, a free online service which allows you to organize all your tasks, receive reminders of when tasks are due, share tasks with others, and much, much more! (eTips registration deadline is 24 hours prior to the session.)

Betsy Edwards will present a TechBytes session on "Online newsletters" at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, March 27, in 501 Hale Library. She will share how K-State's IT newsletter is created in online and e-mail formats, plus the tools and resources used. Questions about creating newsletters can also be sent to betsy@k-state.edu ahead of time.

Reminder: "Modifying Styles in Word" eTips March 12

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

Marty Courtois will present an eTips session on "Modifying Styles in Word" at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, desktop webinar via Wimba. Using styles makes working with Microsoft Word much easier, and the ability to modify and create your own styles gives you real control over the appearance of your documents.

eTips registration is required at least 24 hours in advance to allow time to add you to the session and ensure your workstation is configured properly for accessing the session.

TechBytes March 13: Second Life

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

Neal Wollenberg and Larry Havenstein will present "Second Life" at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, March 13, in 301A Hale Library. The Web has become more than just e-mail and webpages. It's become another virtual world outside of our own. Sit down today as we walk you through your first steps of your Second Life community.

TechBytes seminars are free and open to the K-State community. The series is also video-streamed live for off-campus viewers and others who wish to view it from their desktop. Use the "View live video" link on the TechBytes homepage to watch the next live video as it's being recorded. The TechBytes archives contains a wealth of information on IT tools and topics. It includes programs, handouts, videos, and resources from seminars in 2003 to the present.

IT by the numbers: iSIS advisor-training statistics

by Brian Arthaud-Day, Undergraduate Admissions
published March 11, 2008

These are the numbers from iSIS advisor training at K-State.

Session type# sessionsParticipantsDates
General advisor sessions45812Jan. 14-Feb. 29
Dean's office staff451Feb. 21, Feb. 28
Academic department office staff497Feb. 27-29
Security tip of the week

Fast steps to follow if you responded to a scam e-mail

by Harvard Townsend, IT security
published March 11, 2008

In the last six weeks, K-State has been the target of at least four spear phishing attacks that tried to trick people into divulging their eID password. If you replied to any of these scam e-mails and provided your password, do these immediately:

  1. Log in to your eID profile and change your password if you have not done so already.
  2. Check your WebMail configuration for changes, especially the "Reply-to:" address and your signature block (select Options | Personal Information | create and edit your signatures | Default Signature).
  3. Contact Harvard Townsend, K-State's IT security officer, (harv@k-state.edu, 532-2985) so we can determine if your eID was misused in any other way.

The criminals are getting better at making their scams appear legitimate. This last one, for example, knew that we call our user identifier an "eID". So once again, all K-Staters are urged to:

Your colleagues and those of us who spent many, many hours repairing the damage done by this latest round of scams will appreciate it.

K-State Online

How to share exam questions with other instructors

by Cathy Rodriguez, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

I work closely with other instructors and would like to be able to share my exam questions with them. Is there a way to do this?

Yes. You can share your entire question bank with them.

Sharing your question bank doesn't give others ownership or editing capabilities. They can only view and add your questions to their assignments. They cannot copy, delete, rename, edit, add questions to your folders, change answers, or move your questions or folders.

  1. On the Course Tools page under Assessment Tools, click the Questions link.
  2. Click the Share Questions link in the menu.
  3. Type your colleague's last name or user name in the Search box. 
  4. Click the Search button.
  5. In the Add column, click the Allow access to My Question Bank link.

Easy way to add videos to webpages?

by Betsy Edwards and Phyllis Epps, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

Is there a quick and easy way to add videos to webpages? My students are making videos and I want to post them online, but not via YouTube.

The short answer is to put a video online and link to it. Acceptable video formats include .wmv on PCs, and .mov (QuickTime) on Macs. You may want to add a small image known as a "thumbnail" that can be clicked to access and start the video.

The long answer is that it also depends on other factors, including:

  • Where the video will be stored and how much space is available there (personal web space, K-State's central website, department web server, etc.)
  • Duration/size of the video (aim for less than 5 minutes)
  • Size of the viewing window (320x240 is recommended)
  • Software used to create the video

Videos can easily use a lot of storage space, so space limits are a key factor. If you store a video on your personal webpage, you'll run into space and quota limits fairly fast. Faculty/staff can store videos on the university's central website, which requires access permissions. On departmental web servers, check with your IT support staff.

For more information and assistance, contact the Media Development Center in 213 Hale Library, 785-532-7422. The staff is knowledgeable on multimedia topics and has many resources available to K-Staters.

Spotlight
Front image of the iSIS bookmark. Click to go to the printable PDF
Front view of the
new iSIS bookmark

K-State's iSIS implementation continues

by Aimee Hagedorn, Information Technology Assistance Center
published March 11, 2008

The phased implementation of K-State's new student information system known as iSIS continues with the upcoming enrollment for fall 2008.

In preparation for enrollment, bookmarkers with easy-to-follow instructions were distributed last week to all colleges and departments to give to students beforehand. The bookmarkers are also available at the IT Help Desk, 214 Hale Library, and at the Registrar’s Office. (Click the image on the right to go to the printable PDF version.)

Earlier this month, students were enabled to view holds in both KATS and iSIS, and students and advisors could view enrollment dates and times in iSIS. Information on performing these tasks is available on the iSIS help site.

The complete list of implementation dates is in the iSIS transition schedule online. Below are important iSIS dates in March and April.


Date Tasks that can be done in iSIS
March 7 Students and advisors can view enrollment dates and times for fall 2008
March 24 Students can add/drop a class for fall 2008, edit class enrollment options, view their class schedule, and shop the Marketplace. (Enrollment for summer 2008 is in KATS.)
March 24 Faculty can view class rosters as students begin to enroll for fall 2008
March/April Students can view and accept financial aid for 2008-2009