This morning, the FDU email domain experienced a phishing attack from a compromised FDU email account. The message, which alleges to be a job opportunity from the World Health Organization can be seen below.

Our team has contained the issue, by removing the message from FDU Inboxes and assisting the compromised user. However, if you believe that you may have provided personal information to this phisher, such as your NetID password, please change your password and then contact the University Technical Assistance Center at (973) 443-8822 for further assistance. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

We have upgraded Self Service in our Production environment. The upgrade includes:

• Fixes to the search for section functionality
• The ability for Vancouver students to submit their SINs electronically
• A change to student registration requiring the student to accept terms and conditions only once per semester
• The ability for faculty to submit both midterm and final grades using Self Service

Procedures for grading can be found by visiting:

WebAdvisor will no longer be used for any functions and will be decommissioned.

If you have any questions or encounter any issues, please email selfserviceadmin@fdu.edu.

FDU OIRT is currently in the process of upgrading single sign-on authentication on our Microsoft Office 365 suite. On January 10th, our community will notice an updated login screen, as shown below.

Upon logging in for the first time after the upgrade, you will be prompted to set up Duo Security. To proceed, simply press “Setup” when prompted and perform your Cisco Duo multifactor authentication as usual. To see this process in its entirety, visit the link below:

Aside from this one-time request, our expectation is that this upgrade will be completely seamless for our community. If you have any questions, please contact our University Technical Assistance Center at (973)-443-8822.

In a Tech Alert sent on November 3^rd, we explained that macOS Ventura (macOS 13) was in the process of being tested within our environment. We asked our community refrain from installing the OS on FDU issued Mac computers until further notice.

At this time, we are pleased to announce that macOS Ventura (macOS 13) is fully vetted and is approved to install on all FDU Mac computers. The upgrade can take up to an hour to complete and should be conducted with the power adapter connected.

Ventura can be installed via the FDU Self Service Portal for Software by launching the Upgrade to Ventura task shown below.

Alternately, you can go to the Apple menu > select System Preferences, and then select Software Update.

All FDU Mac users are welcome to upgrade to macOS Ventura. However, in the event that you choose not to install Ventura, we ask that you please install the latest version of macOS Monterey (12.6.2) at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

The latest version of iOS/iPadOS contains important security updates and is required for all FDU-owned iOS devices that support iOS 16. If your iOS device does not support iOS/iPadOS version 16, please update to version 15.7.2.

These updates will occur for FDU-owned iOS/iPadOS devices overnight on Tuesday, December 20th. To ensure a successful installation, please leave your device(s) powered on and connected to a power adapter and Wi-Fi. FDU-owned devices that are not connected on the evening of the 20^th will update and reboot upon their next connection to Wi-Fi.

It is strongly advisable for non-FDU devices to update their iOS as well. To update a non-FDU-owned device, or to update your FDU device immediately, please go to Settings > General > Software Update and tap Download and Install. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

To ensure a secure and functional network environment, FDU pushes monthly software updates to FDU owned computers. These software packages include updates to the applications that we use on a day-to-day basis such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Office365. As a result of this process, we inform our community that there is no need to install updates for these managed applications unless you are informed otherwise. 

At this time, the version of Google Chrome installed on FDU owned computers contains a security vulnerability. Due to the nature of the vulnerability, any potential exposure to the University is being mitigated by other security rules we have in place.  Therefore, we will not be updating the version of Chrome until the next monthly update scheduled in early January. However, if users see a banner flash on the top of their Chrome session that looks like the one below, it would be OK to update the browser now rather than wait.

If you choose not to update at this time, the update will occur automatically after the holiday break. Thank you for your attention to this matter.  

Over the Thanksgiving break, the FDU email domain experienced multiple phishing attacks. While the specifics of these attacks were varied, most were related to employment opportunities and sent from compromised FDU email accounts. Typically, an FDU user would receive a phishing email containing a Google Docs attachment. Clicking on the attachment would direct them to a website, where they would be enticed to provide their FDU NetID username and password.

While our team immediately worked to contain the issue, we ask for your continued vigilance during this period of increased phishing activity. If you believe that you may have provided your NetID information to a phisher, please change your password and then contact the University Technical Assistance Center at (973)-443-8822 for further assistance.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

On Tuesday evening, November 22nd, between the hours of 11PM and Wednesday 6AM, we will be performing a rolling security patch update on our Network Authentication Appliances.

Our expectation is that this maintenance will not be user impacting. However, during this maintenance window, there is a possibility that on-campus users may experience intermittent outages of the wireless network. Additionally, off campus users may experience temporary issues when accessing the VPN.

If you have any issues with connecting to the Wireless Network OR VPN after the update is complete, please reboot your device. If you have any further questions, please contact UTAC at (973)-443-8822 or open a support case on IT.FDU.EDU.

When a new operating system is released, the USAN team regularly performs various tests to ensure that it is fully compatible with the FDU environment. As this process is still ongoing for macOS Ventura (macOS 13), we ask that you do not upgrade your FDU issued computer to macOS Ventura at this time. We will send another alert to the community as soon as macOS Ventura is fully vetted and ready to install.

In the meantime, Apple has also released macOS Monterey version 12.6.1, which is recommended for all FDU issued Mac computers. To ensure that you are installing the correct OS update, please go to System Preferences via Apple menu and then select Software Update.

Next, locate Another update is available. and click More Info…

Ensure the box next to macOS Monterey 12.6.1 is checked and click Install Now.

If you have any questions or concerns while completing the update, please contact UTAC at (973)-443-8822. Thank you for updating and keeping your machine safe.

As we approach the middle of the semester, OIRT would like to offer a reminder on how to contact and submit support requests to the Help Desk known as the FDU University Technical Assistance Center, or UTAC. The Help Desk can be reached by dialing extension 8822 from on-campus or (973)–443–8822. Requests for support can also be submitted by emailing fdutac@fdu.edu with details that pertain to your technology related issue.

During the initial process of your request, the Help Desk will use several questions and data points to confirm your identity before creating a ticket and/or providing support.

Information that can potentially be validated during your interaction with the Help Desk will include, but may not be limited to, one or more of the following pieces of information:

• Month and day of birth – No one will ever ask for your full date of birth.
• Last 4 digits of your social security number – No one will ever ask for your full social security number.
• Employee ID (also known as your FDU ID, Datatel ID, or Colleague ID)

In this day and age of cyber security awareness, we understand the caution and hesitancy some may have in providing such information. However, in this case, the procedure is necessary for the Help Desk to validate your identity and to prevent any bad actors from executing nefarious activities as if they were you.