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November 2005 Update

In This Update


New State Law Requires Disclosure of Computing Security Breaches

A new state law requires that any security breach of computerized data containing personal information must be disclosed to all affected parties. The law (SB-6043) applies to all entities that do business within Washington State, including the UW.

The new law, effective July 2005, is a reaction to widespread reports of security breaches that have compromised personal information of millions of citizens around the country. It has serious implications for faculty and staff at the University of Washington.

In most cases the disclosure will require a written notice to all affected parties. Those affected by a breach will be allowed to seek damages or injunctive relief against those who failed to protect their information or against those who violated the law's notification requirements.


C&C Strategic Planning Addresses Key Issues

C&C is moving forward to address the key issues raised as part of its strategic planning effort. Teams of C&C staff and others at the UW are working on action plans that identify ways to improve customer service, business practices, project management, communications, and other areas.

These key issues were identified during a series of in-depth interviews with 160 people representing major areas of the university, including the UW president, executive vice president, provost, deans, senior administrators, computing directors, and C&C staff.

The goal of the planning is to position C&C to respond strategically to technology challenges over the next three-to-five years in support of the UW's vision and mission.

For more information on C&C's strategic planning effort, see: http://www.washington.edu/uwit/splan.finalrpt.pdf


Disaster Preparedness for UW Communications and Computing

Hurricane Katrina raised awareness of the importance of emergency preparedness and disaster response. At the UW, C&C is working to make the university's network and critical computing infrastructure more robust and redundant so that critical systems and data can be recovered quickly after a disaster. Some of the measures in place are highlighted here.

Communications Infrastructure

  • Phone: The UW telephone system has been designed to be redundant and geographically diverse, with a minimum of eight hours battery backup in addition to its emergency power generators. The UW maximizes its essential communications capacity in an emergency by using multiple service providers, and gains the greatest flexibility through use of both traditional and Internet-based communications technologies in the network.

  • Emergency Communications: The UW Emergency Communications System (ECS) provides limited telephone capacity for critical university communications during emergencies. By using alternative network connections and having access to service providers outside the Puget Sound area, the ECS can provide service during an emergency when the public telephone system is not available.

UW Network and Data Center

  • Network: Router centers process network traffic for different parts of the university. Because C&C-supported networks have alternate router centers and redundant paths, the loss of a single router or Internet access point will not bring down the entire system. These router centers have separate power systems to ensure continuous operations in the event of a temporary power failure.

  • Data Center: The UW's primary data center is equipped with a diesel generator that can operate for one week at full load, and indefinitely if additional diesel fuel is available. The UW data center has physical security features to protect vital electronic components, including building access controls and locked cages for extremely sensitive systems. The facility also is equipped with fire and water damage-prevention systems. Security is being further upgraded with funds from a Homeland Security grant.

  • Critical System Backup: The UW is set up to run its critical business transaction systems at a second site should the university lose operating capability at its primary site. In addition, plans are underway for some of the mission critical applications to be mirrored at another site in a different seismic zone so they can switch automatically to a standby computer system during an emergency, or quickly be recovered. As resources permit, additional redundant systems will be added to the remote data center.

  • Testing: The UW contracts with computer facilities in Pennsylvania and Arizona to run periodic tests on different critical administrative systems to ensure that the many complex components of software, hardware, and data can be reconstructed to function at the backup facility.

HUB Lawn Now Wireless; Twenty Sites to Be Added This Year

Wireless access is now available on the HUB lawn, the Chemistry and the Engineering library buildings, and large portions of Health Sciences Center T-wing instructional areas under Phase 1 of the UW Wireless Initiative, a three-year effort to bring wireless access to the Seattle campus.

The next sites to receive wireless access include Bloedel, Raitt, Denny, T-Wing seventh floor auditoriums, and Physics-Astronomy. The remaining buildings of the twenty on the Phase 1 list are targeted for completion by the end of this academic year. For a complete list of Phase 1 sites, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/wifi_map.html#phase1

Work is underway by the Wireless Advisory Group (WAG) and the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (A-TAC) to propose a list of Phase 2 sites.

For more information, see the UW Wireless Initiative Web site at http://www.washington.edu/computing/wireless/initiative.html


Plans for New UW Data Center Move Ahead

Work is underway to complete a pre-design and feasibility study for a new data center facility for the UW. The study was recommended by a university-wide Data Center Task Force charged with examining future research, teaching, and administrative data center needs for the UW. The UW's primary data center is running out of capacity to support the university's critical research and business needs.

The long-term facility alternatives under consideration include:

  • On-campus facility (Academic Computing Center Building)
  • Off-campus facility (Sand Point Building 5)
  • Off-campus new acquisition (Canyon Park light industrial park or similar)
  • Outsourcing option (leased facility)
  • No-project option

A Data Center Work Group is analyzing the alternatives and has selected a consulting firm to help with the pre-design study, to be completed in spring 2006. The Work Group is developing a business plan for a potential data center that addresses costs and revenue sources, recommends funding and operating terms, maximizes cost recovery options, and articulates a rationale for any needed central funding support.

For more information, see the preliminary report.


New Autumn Quarter Tools for Teaching, Learning, Research

New tools for teaching, learning, and research released in time for Autumn Quarter include:

  • Catalyst WebFiles: File Management via Web Browser. This new tool provides students with convenient file management via a Web browser, allowing them to manage and work with their files from any Internet-connected computer. There is interest in expanding this service to faculty and staff.

    For more information, see http://catalyst.washington.edu/how-to/webfiles/ for the WebFiles How-to Guide.

  • Digital Presentation Studio: Recording and Streaming. Students can record, present, and stream a presentation in near-real time for critique or distribution in a new Digital Presentation Studio opened by the UW Libraries and Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies on the third floor of Odegaard Library.

    For more information, see http://depts.washington.edu/sacg/facilities/advtech/dps.shtml

  • TeamSpot: Collaboration Facilities With SMART Board. Small groups of four-to-six students with laptops can share applications, files, Web addresses, and information via a shared desktop on a 50” plasma screen in one of two new “TeamSpot” computing facilities opened by UW Libraries and Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies in Odegaard and Suzallo libraries.

    For more information, see the TeamSpot Web site at http://depts.washington.edu/sacg/facilities/advtech/teamspot.shtml

UW Beams HDTV Images From the Ocean Floor - UPDATED 11/9/05

On Sept. 27, the UW made live, high-definition video of the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Northeast Pacific Ocean available around the world. UW's John Delaney, co-chief scientist of the VISIONS '05 expedition, noted the amazing quality of the live images and said high-bandwidth telecommunications is an essential technology in the transformation under way in the ocean and earth sciences.

UW oceanographers, biologists, and geologists aboard the UW's research ship Thomas G. Thompson, 200 miles off the coast on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, worked with a team of UWTV and C&C engineers and ResearchChannel to send the uncompressed video via high-speed Internet to the iGrid conference in San Diego, where it was part of a multipoint high definition videoconference. Viewers could watch the video online and it was also broadcast to audiences nationwide on ResearchChannel and UWTV.

An underwater robot, Jason II, was equipped with a camera 2.5 kilometers below sea level and connected by fiber-optic cable to the ship, which then beamed a signal via satellite to Kane Hall. One area of research the scientists were engaged in is studies of the biological communities that live and thrive at seafloor underwater hot springs in the absence of sunlight.

For more information, see the University Week story at http://uwnews.org/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=12732

View the streaming video at http://www.researchchannel.org/visions05


Keeping UW Email Reliable

As part of an initiative focusing on email reliability, C&C has made efforts to control the adverse impact of spam. Two recent projects are having a positive impact:

  • Recent requirements to use authentication when submitting messages have greatly reduced the flow of spam generated from virus-infected UW computers.
  • The frequency of messages originating from UW being marked as spam when they arrive at their destination has been greatly reduced. In the past, this problem has caused the UW to be blacklisted by major Internet Service Providers including AOL.

It is important to acknowledge the limits to email reliability in the current Internet environment, but C&C continues to work with departmental email system administrators on additional efforts to reduce spam, control mass email, and make UW email more resistant to threats.


State-required Job Class Project Benefits HR and Others

A massive effort to convert some 15,000 employee records to new job class codes as required by the state under Civil Service Reform was completed by C&C in time for the June 30 deadline.

In the past, payroll and personnel reports listed job classes the same way for all UW bargaining units. Now, job class codes are defined separately for each bargaining unit. This will make it easier for central offices to match job class to labor contracts, particularly when some new tools are finished.

In addition, a mechanism inside the Online Payroll Update System (OPUS) now automatically assigns bargaining units to appointments, saving the Labor Relations Office countless hours of manual verification and data entry.

This work involved significant changes to the Higher Education Payroll Personnel System (HEPPS) database and to programs such as OPUS, Online Work Leave System (OWLS), and Employee Self Service (ESS). This additional information for some employees can be sorted in a variety of ways for report generation and Department of Personnel reports.

For more information, see http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/uworks/systems.html


New State Guidelines on Accessibility to IT

The state has adopted new guidelines to ensure accessibility to information technology (IT) for people with disabilities. The new guidelines represent a growing commitment by the state to keep IT available to all citizens. Key points include the following:

  • Because the state guidelines are based on standards required for all federal Web sites, extensive information and tools are available.
  • While not requirements, the new state guidelines give state Web developers good, well tested guidance on how to ensure their sites are accessible.
  • Adhering to the guidelines will make UW Web sites available to the estimated 10 percent of the population who have difficulty with graphical Web browsers and mice because of physical limitations.

For more information about the state guidelines, see http://www.isb.wa.gov/tools/webguide/accessibility.aspx

A group of UW people managing department, project, and other UW Web sites meets regularly to discuss the topic of accessible Web design. See http://www.washington.edu/computing/accessible/accessibleweb/