As we adjust to remote learning and working,  it is an unfortunate reality that phishing scammers are increasing their efforts to exploit our current situation. For example, the University community has seen a new phishing attempt claiming to offer a work from home opportunity during the pandemic. Concurrently, we are still seeing more traditional scams such as those claiming to be from FDU IT. Some of these attempts are coming from compromised accounts within the FDU domain. As a result, they would not have the [External] tag prepended to the message.

Since our expectations are that these attempts will continue and possibly increase in the coming months, we must ask you to be especially vigilant at this time. If you see a likely phishing attempt, please let us know by using the new reporting tool discussed in our Tech Alert from March 6^th. Additionally, please follow the tips for spotting a phishing scam below.

Examples of two recent phishing attempts are contained below.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Begin Example #1:

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Subject: Work from home. 

Dear Off-Campus Student,

Due to the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 Coronavirus across the country, we have decided to offer a Work From Home Online Job with a pay of $500 weekly, kindly click reply and send us your direct cell number and alternative email, so we know how to reach you.

This is very important, so please complete this as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
<FDU Student Name Removed>

For:
<FDU Employee Name removed>
Email: <Gmail Address Removed>

Begin Example #2:

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Subject: Treat as Urgent. 

Dear Fairleigh Dickson University Student/Staff,

This message is from the Fairleigh Dickinson University Helpdesk,

We are currently upgrading our database and e-mail account centre I. e homepage view, enhance security installations of new 2020 anti-spam and anti-virus software, large mailbox space , and also to confirm active users.

Inactivate/unverified accounts will be suspended with immediate effect.

Kindly verify your email within as soon possible or your email will be temporarily suspended. click HERE to verify your e-mail.

Yours Faithfully,

<Name removed>
IT Web Support

UPDATE: Due to a scheduling conflict, the Wednesday April 1^st training session has been moved from 2PM EDT to 11AM EDT.

If you have already registered for the April 1^st training, there is no need to re-register. We look forward to seeing you at the new 11AM time. If you need to cancel or change your training please contact manish@fdu.edu

As we navigate this unprecedented situation, FDU IT is remaining as flexible as possible to ensure that the maximum number of faculty members possible have access to this training. Thank you for your understanding.

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The Office of Academic Technologies would like to invite all Faculty members to join us in a webinar to help everyone become more familiar with using the Echo360 platform.  

Echo360 provides a way for faculty to record lectures from their personal computer and share with their students directly from Blackboard.

The Echo360 team will provide a review of the Universal Capture software through a mini training webinar.  During this webinar, they will take participants through the process of downloading and installing the software, creating a video and sharing it to a course.   

The software will work on both Mac’s and PC’s.  PC’s need to be running Windows 10 or a later OS. 

There will be two sessions offered to accommodate all faculty interested in learning about Echo 360’s capabilities. The first will be on Wednesday, April 1^st at 11AM EDT and the second will be on Friday, April 3^rd at 12 Noon EDT.

Please join one of the webinars to take advantage of this simple software that will provide teaching continuity for you and your students. If you have questions please email manish@fdu.edu or call (201)-692-7074.

Since our recent move to remote learning & working, FDU IT has been hard at work to provide the community with more effective tools to adapt to their new environment. Today, we are ready to announce two new services that will bring our on-campus Unified Communications experience to you at home. 

First, we’d like to introduce the NWN Cloud Self-Service Portal. This simple to use web portal allows you to manage many features of your new Unified Communications office phone. Until we return to the campus, the portal’s most important feature is the ability to remotely set and remove call forwarding. Please view for instructions to setup an account on the self-service portal.

FDU IT is also pleased to announce Cisco Desktop Jabber. With Desktop Jabber, FDU employees can remotely place and receive calls with their on-campus phone extensions from their computers. The Windows and Mac Jabber clients can be downloaded from within the NWN Cloud Self-Service Portal. Once your account for the self-service portal is setup, please visit the link below for Jabber client installation instructions. 

If you choose to set up Desktop Jabber, please pay special attention to the audio settings. From the Jabber client, click the gear icon in the top right hand corner of the screen. Next, choose “Settings” and then “Audio”.  From here, select the “Speaker” dropdown menu. This menu displays a list of audio devices attached to your computer. Select each one and press the arrow shaped “Play” icon next to the menu. Once you hear the test music playing, you have selected the proper device. Click “Apply” to save the change.

As this temporary transition continues, FDU IT will persist in making your work at home experience as seamless as possible. As always, the University Technical Assistance Center is available at (973)-443-8822 to help with any questions that you may have.

As we move into our new remote learning and work at home environment, FDU IT has collected some of the common questions that we have been receiving. For more information on any of the topics discussed below, visit:

Microsoft OneDrive

What is OneDrive? 

Microsoft OneDrive is the cloud based file storage system included with your FDU Office365 account. It allows for the seamless sharing of documents between FDU students and faculty.

How do I access OneDrive from my browser?

Log into your FDU email account via webmail.fdu.edu for students or office365.fdu.edu for faculty and staff. Next, click the “app launcher” icon in the upper left corner and select OneDrive. 

Do I have to use a browser to access OneDrive?

No. There are OneDrive apps for Windows, Mac, and mobile devices. For more information, see resource article below.

Can I use the Office suite from within OneDrive?

Yes. You can create word documents, Excel workbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and OneNote notebooks. To access the office suite, log into OneDrive, select “New”, and choose your preferred Office application.

Zoom Video Conferencing

What is Zoom?

Zoom is a web-based video conferencing tool that allows users to meet online, with or without video. Zoom users can choose to record sessions, collaborate on projects, and share or annotate on one another’s screens, all with one easy-to-use platform.

How do I access Zoom?

To access Zoom meetings, faculty members must sign in to fdu.zoom.us with their NETID credentials.  Please be careful to use this FDU link, since logging into the standard zoom.us website will result in a basic license with a 45 minute limit to run meetings and NO recording capabilities. To take advantage of the full features of Zoom, including recording capabilities, you must sign in via fdu.zoom.us.

Do I need to install anything to use Zoom?

Upon starting or joining a Zoom meeting for the first time, you will be prompted to install a small client. If you prefer, you can also download it manually.

How do I access Zoom for Webcampus?

Students and faculty members can also create Zoom meetings for their classes from within the Webcampus environment.

My Zoom account seems limited and lacks recording functionality. How can I fix this?

This issue can be caused by accessing Zoom without using the official FDU URL of fdu.zoom.us. If you have a basic license with limitations, please email manish@fdu.edu to have it changed to the correct license.

Can I use a native Zoom client instead of the web based version?

Absolutely. The download links and installation tutorial for the Zoom for Windows and Zoom for macOS native clients are available here:

Where can I learn more about Zoom?

Zoom experts host free and interactive live training webinars daily. To schedule a free Zoom training webinar, visit:

FDU has also compiled a list of ways to lead a productive and inclusive Zoom class:

Echo 360 Universal Capture

What is Echo 360?

Echo 360 allows professors to generate video recordings which provide their students with 24/7 access to classroom discussion, presentation materials, and lectures.

How do I get started with Echo 360?

Full instructions for faculty members to create and use an Echo 360 account are available below:

VPN

What is a VPN?

Many FDU resources, including Webui, Informer, Synoptix, HRIS and Perceptive Content, require a connection to the local on-campus network.  VPN, which stands for Virtual Private network, allows you to securely connect to the FDU network remotely ensuring access to these services. 

How can I connect to FDU’s VPN?

You can access the VPN via vpn.fdu.edu. If this is your first time connecting, use this step by step tutorial on making a VPN connection:

Can I access my Home Drive and Departmental Shared Drive remotely with the FDU VPN?

Yes. Instructions for both Mac and PC are available below:

Other

What is the best way to access my FDU email account on my mobile device?

The easiest way to access your FDU email account on your mobile device is to install the Outlook app from either the App Store (Apple) or the Play Store (Android).  We support and advise to use this method due to the program’s robustness and integration of all Office365 features. For a full tutorial to assist you with installation and configuration see below:

How can New Jersey based faculty and staff members set up call forwarding?

Full step by step tutorials for enabling call forwarding from on-site and from off-site are available below:

In addition to the Zoom meetings that we announced in yesterday’s Tech Alert, faculty members can also create Zoom meeting links for their classes via Webcampus. Please follow the instructions provided to add this functionality to your courses.

In Webcampus, instructors can schedule new meetings and students can join meetings from a single link.  

When using Zoom, all meetings and recordings are managed from a central area within the Zoom cloud.

To access Zoom meetings outside of the Webcampus environment, users should login to fdu.zoom.us with their FDU Net ID credentials.

If you have questions please email manish@fdu.edu

To access Zoom meetings, faculty members must sign in to fdu.zoom.us with their NetID credentials.  Please be careful to use this FDU link, since logging into the standard zoom.us website will result in a basic license with a 45 minute limit to run meetings and NO recording capabilities. To take advantage of the full features of Zoom, including recording capabilities, you must sign in via fdu.zoom.us.

If you have already signed in via zoom.us and you have a basic license with limitations, please email manish@fdu.edu to have it changed to the correct license.

The University has been alerted to an elaborate email scam. The email comes from an FDU email address and offers part time work as a pet sitter.

This is a scam – if you have taken any action, please do not continue. We have blocked further communication from the offending email address.

Throughout the years, the FDU community has reported phishing attempts to FDU IT through various means. With the recent rise in such attempts, we have implemented a new, easy to use, and consistent reporting tool which is integrated directly into your email application.

When viewing a message through the office365.fdu.edu web interface, there is now a drop down menu labeled as “Junk”.  Simply select phishing from the menu.

If you view your mail from the Microsoft Outlook application, the dropdown menu will be labeled as “Report Message” but the process remains the same. Simply select “Phishing”.

If you are viewing your mail through the Outlook Mobile app on Android or Apple iOS, you will select “Report Junk” and then select “Phishing”.

Once you report a phishing attempt through any of these interfaces, the message will automatically be moved to the deleted items folder and a report will be sent to both FDU IT and Microsoft. There is also an option to filter spam messages. From the same drop down menu, select “Junk” and the message will be moved to the Junk Folder.

If you require any assistance or have any additional questions, please call the University Technical Assistance Center at (973)-443-8822.

The frequency and sophistication of SPAM and SCAM emails continues to increase and higher education is a prime target. To combat this growing problem we catch hundreds of nefarious emails daily though our filters, and we offer tools such as the [External] tag which allows our users to identify potentially threatening emails from outside of our domain.

Despite our ongoing efforts, no filter or tool can ever be 100% effective. The greatest protection is a perceptive and informed community. Each of us, faculty, staff and student alike must be vigilant, and inspect every email for irregularities. For an understanding of how to spot online scams, please view the following article: 

Today, University Systems and Networking is pleased to announce that a new threat protection tool is running seamlessly in the background for all FDU email accounts. With Safelinks, Microsoft will perform a scan when a URL is clicked to see if the linked website is blacklisted or contains malware. In most instances, a threat will not be detected and the scan will occur so rapidly that it will be imperceptible. In the event that a threat is found, the user will receive a warning message detailing the type of threat which has been detected. One such example is below.

Safelinks is part of a security roadmap which is designed to keep our community at the forefront of online safety. Our University Technical Assistance Center is also available if you are uncertain about a message. They can be reached at (973)-443-8822.

FDU IT is seeing a significant increase in email scams, some claiming to be from organizations as wholesome as UNICEF. Please be aware that no one from the University will ever ask you for bank information or financial information via email. At this time, please be especially vigilant in carefully reviewing all incoming email before sending a reply.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.