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December 2004 Update

In This Update


Technology Advisory Committees Updates

A-TAC: Software Licensing Proposal Endorsed

A proposal to establish a new, central software licensing office to serve as the primary resource for negotiating site and volume software licenses for UW staff, faculty, and students has received a strong endorsement from the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (A-TAC). The proposal suggests that a centralized office would allow the UW to purchase software in greater volumes and realize a larger discount than it does currently.

Recommendations include that the new office track software purchases university-wide, sell and distribute software, administer software licenses, be part of a central business unit, and be staffed by 3 FTE.

The proposal was developed by a subcommittee appointed by A-TAC that included A-TAC members, departmental computing directors, and representatives from Purchasing and C&C. The group surveyed 18 peer institutions about their software licensing procedures. The proposal will now be considered by U-TAC.

To view the software licensing proposal and other meeting materials, see the A-TAC Meeting Materials Web page at: http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/atac/meetings/index.html

For more information on the Technology Advisory Committees, including agendas and meeting materials, see the Technology Advisory Committee Web Site at: http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/

U-TAC: Minimum Computing Security Standards

The University Technology Advisory Committee (U-TAC) has created a subcommittee to develop a set of minimum computing security standards for the UW. The goal is to help ensure that every computer on the UW network is properly configured, creating a more secure network for all. The subcommittee consists of the Privacy Assurance and System Security Council plus representatives from the Faculty Senate, the Office of Research, and the Academic Technology Advisory Committee (A-TAC). The Provost has asked Terry Gray, C&C Associate Vice President, to chair this group.

For more information on the Technology Advisory Committees, including agendas and meeting materials, see the Technology Advisory Committee Web Site at: http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/

I-TAC: Ranks UW Administrative Systems Projects

Information Technology Advisory Committee (I-TAC) members prioritized 23 projects that were submitted for review under a new approval process for UW administrative systems projects. The new approval process was adopted by I-TAC in May and requires major administrative projects to be reviewed and prioritized by the committee. The committee ranked the projects in priority order at its November meeting based upon the results of a preliminary committee vote. The 23 projects were submitted from across the UW, and included a mix of planning efforts and system improvements.

In January, I-TAC will select a final package of projects to recommend to the Provost for funding and implementation. The package will be based upon the committee's priority ranking and consider funding, scheduling, and resource needs.

To view a list of I-TAC proposals, the committee's ranking, and other meeting materials see the I-TAC Meeting Materials Web page at http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/itac/meetings/index.html

For more information on the Technology Advisory Committees, including agendas and meeting materials, see the Technology Advisory Committee Web Site at: http://www.washington.edu/president/tacs/


Blackberry and Smart Phone Support

C&C is now offering Blackberry and smart phone support for those who need connectivity on the go. This new service provides real-time email and calendar access using the existing UW email and calendaring infrastructure, Web browsing, and cell phone. C&C will assist with device acquisition, configuration, user training, and ongoing support of the device's phone, email, and calendaring functions.

For other models of smart phones such as the Treo, which runs the Palm software, C&C will assist with device selection and acquisition. Setup and support is charged on an hourly basis.

For more information about fees and services, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/smartphone/ or contact C&C Customer Care Center, 221-5000, customercare@cac.washington.edu


Oracle Calendaring Service Now Available

After a successful pilot project, C&C is now offering Oracle Calendar as a stand-alone, fee-based service to all UW schools and departments. Oracle Calendar provides group calendaring, including the ability to schedule meetings with over 2,000 other campus users. Oracle is available on your desktop and via the Web, and communicates with many hand-held devices.

For more information about fees and services, see http://www.washington.edu/computing/calendar/#calendarservice or contact C&C Customer Care Center, 221-5000, customercare@cac.washington.edu


Computing Security Issues

New Perimeter Defense Intrusion Prevention System

C&C has been evaluating a commercial system, to be placed at the border between the UW campus network and the Internet, that will help increase our network security. This "Intrusion Prevention System," from a company called TippingPoint, is able to analyze a large amount of data traversing the UW border and selectively block only hostile traffic, thus preventing many types of attacks without blocking legitimate instances of the service being exploited by the attacker. Thousands of filters are used, and more are added as new vulnerabilities are announced, often before exploits are released by attackers.

As with any computer security approach, this is only part of the solution, and only prevents certain kinds of attacks. It is still imperative for each and every computer on the UW network to be properly configured and maintained.

Other Computing Security News

Email Virus Scanning Statistics: Each month C&C blocks more than 1.4 million virus-laden email messages (roughly 5 percent of UW email traffic) before they reach UW email inboxes. Although most of these viruses originate off-campus, from home computers that have been compromised, some 50,000 viruses each month come from infected UW computers. That's why it is important to keep every computer patched and have anti-virus software installed, active, and kept up-to-date.

Plans to Allow .Zip and .Exe Email Attachments: C&C has been removing .zip and .exe file attachments from UW email messages since February 2004 because they frequently carry viruses. However, C&C is working on a new process that will change the file type extension of an attachment so that it can be delivered without being automatically executed by your computer. While blocking these attachments has helped reduce the outbreaks of new viruses on the UW network considerably, it has come with a price to UW faculty, staff, and students since .zip and .exe files are used for legitimate work. C&C hopes this new approach will strike a balance between those who need to receive these types of attachments and the security risks they pose.


C&C Support for "Come Together Washington"

C&C's participation in the October 15th "Come Together Washington" celebration showcased the cutting-edge computing and telecommunications capabilities available at the UW. C&C "streamed" High Definition (HD) video over the Internet from Beijing and Rome to an audience of thousands in the Hec Ed Pavilion. When the first HD image from China appeared on the two large screens, there was spontaneous applause. UW students in Rome and China responded in real time to questions posed by the Seattle event moderator.

For viewing (or reviewing) the program, see the Campaign UW: Creating Futures Web site at http://uwfoundation.org/events_pubs/ctw_intro.asp


New Project Tracking System for Administrative Systems

A new project tracking system allows C&C's administrative systems area (Administrative Information Services or AIS), to more accurately track and report where its staff resources are allocated by project. This data will enable better project planning and estimating and will allow AIS to track trends and identify efficiencies in the administrative systems area. The new tracking system, CACTrack, also allows AIS to provide the Information Technology Advisory Committee (I-TAC) with key decision-making data.


System Improvements Help Winter Quarter Online Pre-registration Go Smoothly

System improvements paid off during student pre-registration for Winter Quarter 2005, resulting in virtually no capacity problems on the UW network in November. A combination of increased administrative mainframe and Web server capacities and application tuning made for the smooth sailing. During the 11 days of Priority Registration, the student system handled 3,315,046 transactions with an average response time of 0.17 second.