CryptoLocker Threat

Last week a Wisconsin school district was hit with a computer malware called “Cryptolocker”. This malware accesses files on your computer and/or server and encrypts them. The attackers demand money, and if the payment is not received, the malware will prevent the files from being accessed again.  The specific act in Wisconsin impacted over 40,000 files at the school district. 

This malware is spread through an email that appears to be a tracking notification from UPS or FedEx. This tactic will change soon, so please don't think this has anything to do specifically with shipping companies. 

Regardless of the type of message, you should ALWAYS be careful whenever you get an email containing a hyperlink, especially if it's unexpected. The best practice is to NOT click the link in the email, but to type the web address of the company (UPS, FedEx, Amazon, or whatever) into a different browser window. This reduces the threat of a hidden URL.

I don't necessarily think this one is much worse than a lot of other ones. But this serves as a good general reminder to be very careful about what you click. 

The school district network has a network security system that should help stop many threats, but your vigilance and caution are the best defense.

Here’s a link provided by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to more information on the malware. 

http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/02/ftc-fbi-warn-consumers-about-cryptolocker-new-breed-computer

web site schedule maintenance the morning of Saturday, 2/15

We will be performing routine server maintenance on our website ob Saturday, February 15, 2014 from 7:00 AM - 11:00 AM. While there will not be a complete outage during the maintenance window, connectivity will be sporadic during the required server reboots. We appreciate your understanding.

An even better fix for showing data in IC

Infinite Campus support tells us the following:

With the 1402 update, districts have had to have all users clear their history/cache if they use a browser that doesn't allow the settings to be established so that the browser history clears on exit or if they don't have their browser settings set so that the history does clear on exit. 

The link below explains how to clear the browser history/cache for all supported browsers and OS. Firefox and IE browsers contain the setting where it can be set to clear on exit. In Safari, the way to clear cache/history automatically is by turning on Private Browsing. For any Chrome users, they will need to clear it manually and should do so on a regular basis. 

https://community.infinitecampus.com/kb/display/DOC/Recommended+Browser+Settings

Fix for blank frames in IC

I have bad news and good news.

First the bad: The issue I described yesterday regarding Chrome browser not displaying IC content correctly also affects some Firefox, Safari, and IE installations.

Good news: We have discovered a solution that seems to work, at least sometimes. If you encounter a screen in which a portion of the page that normally should have data (typically the largest portion of the screen) is blank, try this:

1. Right-click on the portion of the page that is blank.
2. Choose "Reload Frame" from the resulting menu. (The exact menu will vary depending on the browser.)

After this, the content should appear in the frame like normal. However, this is hit-or-miss - it doesn't always fix it. We are trying to figure out what specific combination of software causes the behavior. 

So, please try using multiple browsers and reloading the frame to see if you find a combination that works for you. We will continue gathering information to figure out if there is a software fix we can apply.

New look for Infinite Campus

Infinite Campus has a new user interface. This new interface changes the look of the system without changing any functionality.  The search, help, folder tabs, tool outline and tools themselves all function as they have in the past.  All that has changed is an improvement to the system’s usability with a more modern look.  Here is a sample screen showing some of the changes:

More information on the user interface changes can be found in the 1402 release notes in the Campus Community.