What: Network maintenance causing an interruption in wireless connectivity.
When: Feb 11 from 4:00PM until 4:30PM
Who: Most people who use wireless at OHS after school hours will be affected.
Where: The entire northern half of the OHS building. (the north end is where the IMC is)
Why: We will replacing some old network equipment at OHS. This is will be the first of two maintenance windows required to complete the cut-over.
How: This question word really isn't needed, but I thought I'd stick it on the end to complete the set.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
IT Initiatives 2010
Here is a brief presentation outlining the major initiatives of the next eight months. Remember, change is good!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Annenberg videos and lessons available free
Did you know we have a partnership with the Annenberg / CPB Foundation and UW Madison DoIT Streaming Media Services to make Annenberg's Video On Demand (VOD) courses available to you direct from the WiscNet network? Annenberg makes a large number of high quality VOD teacher resources available to the public from their web site at http://www.learner.org/ The VOD courses take the form of Microsoft Windows Media Player streaming videos.
Annenberg has worked with a number of local, regional and state networks to create local content mirrors. The way their setup works is that when you select a VOD course to view from the Annenberg site (http://www.learner.org/), their site detects that you are on the WiscNet network and redirects your request to the WiscNet content mirror. You then receive the video stream you selected from WiscNet's content mirror.
The benefit to you of WiscNet hosting an Annenberg content is that when you view an Annenberg VOD course your stream is coming to you directly from the WiscNet backbone, NOT from the Internet! This only applies when you are viewing them from school. You can still access all the content from off campus, but the performance may not be as good, depending on your Internet connection speeds.
Annenberg has worked with a number of local, regional and state networks to create local content mirrors. The way their setup works is that when you select a VOD course to view from the Annenberg site (http://www.learner.org/), their site detects that you are on the WiscNet network and redirects your request to the WiscNet content mirror. You then receive the video stream you selected from WiscNet's content mirror.
The benefit to you of WiscNet hosting an Annenberg content is that when you view an Annenberg VOD course your stream is coming to you directly from the WiscNet backbone, NOT from the Internet! This only applies when you are viewing them from school. You can still access all the content from off campus, but the performance may not be as good, depending on your Internet connection speeds.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Older browsers won't be supported in Google Apps
Google Apps sent out the following notice regarding the end of support for older browsers. I'm passing along this notice in case anyone is using an older browser at home. All district computers have been upgraded to supported browsers.
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.So, if you are still running IE 6, Firefox 2, or some ancient version of Netscape, it's time to upgrade.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
The Google Apps team
Saturday, January 23, 2010
DSO Server down for maintenance
The DSO server was shutdown this morning at 08:31. The work shuold continue until approximately 7:00 p.m.
For those that are curious - prior to today, this server had been up continuously for 176 days, 13 hours and 24 minutes.
For those that are curious - prior to today, this server had been up continuously for 176 days, 13 hours and 24 minutes.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Critical Internet Explorer security vulnerability patch
If you remember hearing about Google and other companies getting hacked by China, it was due to a security hole in Microsoft Internet Explorer. Microsoft is releasing an emergency security patch to solve this issue.
Please patch your home computers.
Please patch your home computers.
| What is the purpose of this alert? |
This alert is to provide you with an overview of the new security bulletin being released (out-of-band) on January 21, 2010.
New Security Bulletin
Microsoft is releasing one new security bulletin (out-of-band) for newly discovered vulnerabilities:
| Bulletin ID | Bulletin Title | Maximum Severity Rating | Vulnerability Impact | Restart Requirement | Affected Software |
| MS10-002 | Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (978207) | Critical | Remote Code Execution | Requires a restart | All supported versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008*, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2*. |
| * Where indicated in the Affected Software table on the bulletin Web page, the vulnerabilities addressed by this update do not affect supported editions of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, when installed using the Server Core installation option. Please see the bulletin Web page at the link in the left column for more details. |
Public Bulletin Webcast
Microsoft will host a webcast to address customer questions on this bulletin:
Title: Information About Microsoft's January 2010 Out-of-Band Security Bulletin Release
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, at 1:00 P.M. Pacific Time (U.S. & Canada).
Public Resources related to this alert
- Security Bulletin MS10-002 – Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (978207):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ MS10-002.mspx
- Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/
- Microsoft Security Research & Defense (SRD) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/srd/
- Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/
- Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/sdl/
New Security Bulletin Technical Details
In the following tables of affected and non-affected software, software editions that are not listed are past their support lifecycle. To determine the support lifecycle for your product and edition, visit the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Web site at http://support.microsoft.com/
| Bulletin Identifier | Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 | |
| Bulletin Title | Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (978207) | |
| Executive Summary | This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The more severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. The security update addresses these vulnerabilities by modifying the way that Internet Explorer handles objects in memory, validates input parameters, and filters HTML attributes. This security update also addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 979352. | |
| Affected Software | All supported versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008*, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2*. * Where indicated in the Affected Software table on the bulletin Web page, the vulnerabilities addressed by this update do not affect supported editions of Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2, when installed using the Server Core installation option. Please see the bulletin Web page at the link below for more details. | |
| CVE, Exploitability Index Rating |
Note: Please see the Exploitability Index table of the bulletin summary page for more details: http://www.microsoft.com/ | |
| Attack Vectors |
| |
| Mitigating Factors |
| |
| Restart Requirement | The update will require a restart. | |
| Bulletins Replaced by This Update | MS09-072 |
| Publicly Disclosed? Exploited? | CVE-2010-0249 has been publicly disclosed prior to release. CVE-2010-0249 has been exploited in the wild at release. |
| Full Details | http://www.microsoft.com/ |
Regarding Information Consistency
We strive to provide you with accurate information in static (this mail) and dynamic (Web-based) content. Microsoft’s security content posted to the Web is occasionally updated to reflect late-breaking information. If this results in an inconsistency between the information here and the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content, the information in Microsoft’s Web-based security content is authoritative.
If you have any questions regarding this alert please contact your Technical Account Manager or Application Development Consultant.
Thank you,
Microsoft CSS Security Team
Heidi Felker
Education Account Manager - US Public Sector
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052
Toll Free (800) 426 - 9400 x 11310
Direct: (425) 704-6563
Email: heidife@microsoft.com
Security alert- new types of attacks
[This is from another university that granted permission to share as long as
I didn't say where it came from.]
Folks,
Over the past week or so, we've seen a marked increase in malicious
advertisements targeting (and exploiting) multiple vulnerabilities -
including ones in Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Java Development
Kit (JDK) - to silently download and install malware. We have learned
of three "advertising agencies" that appear to be operated by the same
group, that are completely bogus, and they have gotten their ads
pushed out via the largest advertisers in the business. We've seen
popular local and world news sites, popular greeting card sites,
screen saver sites, and more "displaying" these ads. The number and
size of legitimate advertising agencies that wind up referring users
to these malicious advertisements basically means that every Web site
that outsources advertising should be considered a potential infection
vector.
While malicious ads targeting Adobe Flash Player and Adobe
Reader/Acrobat have been going on for well over a year, this is the
first time I can remember seeing numerous computers becoming infected
daily due to a JRE/JDK exploit.
I was able to successfully recreate an infection simply by visiting a
very popular (legitimate) greeting card site this morning. I did not
get redirected to any visible fake AV site, nor did I have to interact
with anything to become infected. There no visible symptoms of an
infection for several minutes, before the fake AV software finally
reared its ugly head. And it wasn't just a Web page that popped up -
it had been silently installed.
This particular variant prevented many Windows applications from
running, including (but not limited to) Paint, cmd.exe, Control Panel,
and more. This fake AV installs itself in a manner that allows
infection of limited user accounts - admin privileges are not needed.
And the kicker... the sample that I sent to virustotal.com was
detected by one out of 41 AV vendors (Symantec wasn't the one).
We have seen signs that not all hosts infected via these advertising
campaigns get the fake Antivirus software package - however, we are
not sure what is downloaded and installed on those hosts. Assuming it
is malware, it evades all of our existing detection methods.
We've seen Java versions 1.6.x up to 1.6.0_15 become compromised, as
well as several 1.5.x versions. We've seen a host running 1.6.0_17
that did not become compromised, leading us to believe that the most
recent Java security release (1.6.0_17) fixes the vulnerability that
this group is exploiting.
Note that a (presumably) different group of miscreants has been using
bogus advertisements that redirect the browser window to fake AV Web
sites. That site will then try (hard) to convince the user to download
and install their product. That activity is not typically indicative
of an infection - and is an entirely different user experience than
the one I mentioned above. And while we saw a rash of this a few weeks
ago, it seems that almost all of the fake AV we've seen over the past
week was installed silently via drive-by exploits.
I cannot stress enough the magnitude of this situation. The popularity
of the Web sites that we've seen host these "advertisements" is
incredibly high - several of them surely get several thousand hits a
day. Thankfully not everyone who goes to these sites gets the evil ads,
but it is a game of Russian roulette that simply isn't worth playing.
We will be tracking this group as best as we can, and taking
network-wide mitigation steps where appropriate (and possible). But
this group changes their M.O. frequently, and I feel they clearly have
gotten to the point where they aren't going away without handcuffs or
pointy lead.
On a similar note, over the course of the last year or so, several AV
vendors have noticed an uptick in malware that encrypts all of certain
types of data files on the computer, and demands a ransom for the
decryption key. Many folks (including myself) think that it is just a
matter of time before that becomes a much more common payload for
these large drive-by malicious advertising campaigns.
And finally, a personal plea. Please - if you or someone you know
comes across this... don't *ever* decide to purchase the fake AV -
even though it might seem to be the easiest way out. Not only is this
financing their operation, this is giving your credit card info to
some serious (and rather bold) criminals.
I didn't say where it came from.]
Folks,
Over the past week or so, we've seen a marked increase in malicious
advertisements targeting (and exploiting) multiple vulnerabilities -
including ones in Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and Java Development
Kit (JDK) - to silently download and install malware. We have learned
of three "advertising agencies" that appear to be operated by the same
group, that are completely bogus, and they have gotten their ads
pushed out via the largest advertisers in the business. We've seen
popular local and world news sites, popular greeting card sites,
screen saver sites, and more "displaying" these ads. The number and
size of legitimate advertising agencies that wind up referring users
to these malicious advertisements basically means that every Web site
that outsources advertising should be considered a potential infection
vector.
While malicious ads targeting Adobe Flash Player and Adobe
Reader/Acrobat have been going on for well over a year, this is the
first time I can remember seeing numerous computers becoming infected
daily due to a JRE/JDK exploit.
I was able to successfully recreate an infection simply by visiting a
very popular (legitimate) greeting card site this morning. I did not
get redirected to any visible fake AV site, nor did I have to interact
with anything to become infected. There no visible symptoms of an
infection for several minutes, before the fake AV software finally
reared its ugly head. And it wasn't just a Web page that popped up -
it had been silently installed.
This particular variant prevented many Windows applications from
running, including (but not limited to) Paint, cmd.exe, Control Panel,
and more. This fake AV installs itself in a manner that allows
infection of limited user accounts - admin privileges are not needed.
And the kicker... the sample that I sent to virustotal.com was
detected by one out of 41 AV vendors (Symantec wasn't the one).
We have seen signs that not all hosts infected via these advertising
campaigns get the fake Antivirus software package - however, we are
not sure what is downloaded and installed on those hosts. Assuming it
is malware, it evades all of our existing detection methods.
We've seen Java versions 1.6.x up to 1.6.0_15 become compromised, as
well as several 1.5.x versions. We've seen a host running 1.6.0_17
that did not become compromised, leading us to believe that the most
recent Java security release (1.6.0_17) fixes the vulnerability that
this group is exploiting.
Note that a (presumably) different group of miscreants has been using
bogus advertisements that redirect the browser window to fake AV Web
sites. That site will then try (hard) to convince the user to download
and install their product. That activity is not typically indicative
of an infection - and is an entirely different user experience than
the one I mentioned above. And while we saw a rash of this a few weeks
ago, it seems that almost all of the fake AV we've seen over the past
week was installed silently via drive-by exploits.
I cannot stress enough the magnitude of this situation. The popularity
of the Web sites that we've seen host these "advertisements" is
incredibly high - several of them surely get several thousand hits a
day. Thankfully not everyone who goes to these sites gets the evil ads,
but it is a game of Russian roulette that simply isn't worth playing.
We will be tracking this group as best as we can, and taking
network-wide mitigation steps where appropriate (and possible). But
this group changes their M.O. frequently, and I feel they clearly have
gotten to the point where they aren't going away without handcuffs or
pointy lead.
On a similar note, over the course of the last year or so, several AV
vendors have noticed an uptick in malware that encrypts all of certain
types of data files on the computer, and demands a ransom for the
decryption key. Many folks (including myself) think that it is just a
matter of time before that becomes a much more common payload for
these large drive-by malicious advertising campaigns.
And finally, a personal plea. Please - if you or someone you know
comes across this... don't *ever* decide to purchase the fake AV -
even though it might seem to be the easiest way out. Not only is this
financing their operation, this is giving your credit card info to
some serious (and rather bold) criminals.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)