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The most recent Information Security Symposium at UC Davis, in 2017, earned great reviews thanks partly to the talented volunteers who helped to plan and support the event.

The planning committee now wants to assemble a similarly capable crew as it starts preparing for the next symposium, to be held at UC Davis June 18-19, 2019. Among other perks, committee members don’t have to pay the symposium’s registration fee and can attend its sessions for free.

The campus upgraded another 17 general-assignment classrooms this summer, adding stronger wi-fi, improved audio, integrated video, ADA-compliant systems, and other fresh technology.

The results are impressive additions to UC Davis classroom tech, although a lot of effort goes into making the work itself look like just another day at the university.

The campus has 130 general-assignment classrooms, and each summer it upgrades more than 10 percent of them – sometimes only the technology, sometimes the entire room.

FBI Agent Justin Lee will discuss cybersecurity in higher education from the FBI’s point of view during a free lunchtime talk from noon to 1 p.m. Oct. 31 in 1003 Kemper.

Any faculty member, student, or employee at UC Davis is welcome. Pizza and water will be available at no cost, while supplies last.

The Information Security Office distributed this letter via various campus listservs this week.

Colleagues,

As the 2018-19 academic year gets under way, we want to share a few thoughts about cyber security relating to current risks, steps you can take to protect yourself, the new UC information security policy, and a few extra events scheduled for National Cyber Security Awareness Month.  

Registration has opened for the Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology, a day of talks and breakout sessions for UC Davis faculty. This year’s theme is “The Digital Learning Environment: Engaging Students in the Classroom, and Beyond.”

If you’re already using Duo at UC Davis, get ready to use it more frequently.

Starting Sept. 6, anyone who now uses Duo multi-factor authentication (MFA) for at least one campus service will begin using it for additional campus services—ones protected by the standard CAS (Central Authentication Service) login, such as myucdavis, the Time Reporting System, and DavisMail.

This month’s University of California Computing Services Conference at UC Davis sold out weeks ago, but everyone is still welcome to come hear the keynote speeches presented by two highly accomplished California technologists.

Their talks in the Mondavi Center are free and public. The speakers are:

Starting this summer, you’ll see greater use of Duo multi-factor authentication at UC Davis. And as use grows, the damage caused by phishing will shrink.

Duo is a security app. It works by asking you for two “factors” when you sign in to an account protected by Duo: your usual password, plus a temporary code created by Duo, typically sent via the Duo app to your smartphone. (There are alternatives if you can’t use a smartphone—more below.)

If you’re looking for SmartSite, it’s no longer there.

As planned, the former UC Davis learning management system went offline when June ended and has entered digital storage. Traffic to smartsite.ucdavis.edu has been redirected to a Knowledge Base article that explains the change.

If you’re a faculty or staff member who still needs materials from your old sites, you have options.

The UC Computing Services Conference at UC Davis has sold out. To be added to a wait list in case space becomes available, email uccsc2018-registration@ucdavis.edu.

The annual UC conference meets Aug. 13-15 this year. See details at uccsc.ucdavis.edu.

Plans are taking shape for the 2018 Summer Institute on Teaching and Technology (SITT), where UC Davis faculty will “meet with colleagues from across the disciplines, talk about teaching discoveries and strategies, and learn about new technologies that help our students accomplish their learning objectives.”

Information and Educational Technology presents the program each summer at no charge to participants (this photo shows one of the 2017 presentations). This year's sessions will meet Sept. 14 in 1309 The Grove (Surge III).

Only campus technologists are likely to notice this change, although the entire campus will benefit.

In the second half of June, UC Davis will modify its CAS Service Registry, which identifies the applications and services that are allowed to use the campus Central Authentication Service (CAS) to secure their log-in processes.

Ideally, no one’s UC Davis account would ever be harmed by a phishing scam.

But because phishing is pervasive, UC Davis is now offering Duo as a resource to help faculty and staff protect their campus Office 365 accounts as part of the recovery if their accounts do get compromised.