15-May-2017

WannaCry Ransomware

Worldwide, more than 200,000 computers have been infected with the "WannaCry" malware/ransomware over this past weekend. To protect against it, do not open unexpected attachments or click on links you haven't verified. It also is carried in macros used by Office software, which are disabled at CLASSE. The anti-virus software used at CLASSE is supposed to detect it, but it pays to be vigilant. The best way to recover is to restore encrypted files from backups. Please keep important files in backed-up samba directories.

For more details about this ransomware attack, please see http://blogs.cornell.edu/classeit/2017/05/15/wannacrywannacrypt-ransomware/.

Macros in Microsoft Programs

People often request we enable macros in Microsoft Office programs. The WannaCry ransomware is just one example of why macros are disabled by default. As an alternative, we suggest that people use LibreOffice which is available on CLASSE Linux computers.

Linux Adobe Flash Firefox Plugin Security update on Tuesday 16-May-2017

• The patched Adobe Flash Firefox Plugin Security update (version 25.0.0.171) will be pushed to all CLASSE Linux SL6 systems on Tuesday 16-May-2017.
• For detailed information about the security vulnerability, please see https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb17-15.html

Summer Usage of Public Terminal Rooms

Because of the unusually large number of summer students at CLASSE this year, many participants in the REU, SRCCS, and SUNRiSE programs will be housed in the public terminal rooms in Wilson Lab (room 315), Newman Lab (room 323), and the Physical Sciences Building (room 361). In the next few weeks, we will be labeling and assigning computers to individual students based on the requirements of their projects. Therefore, please do not use these labeled computers until mid-August.

Any remaining unassigned computer is available for general use. If you find these remaining computers to be insufficient, please let us know.

Inventor Upgrade Wrap-up

The Autodesk software products at CLASSE were upgraded last week from 2015 to 2017 versions. Please let us know of any remaining problems from the upgrade. You may also wish to subscribe to the CLASSE-INVENTOR-ANNOUNCE-L mailing list -- please contact Tim O'Connell to do so.

Exchange E-mail CNAMEs to be retired

CIT will retire 58,000 CNAMEs on Monday, 22-May-2017 that were created during the Office 365 project. For the most part these CNAMEs are no longer used. However, some users may still have their Thunderbird, or other IMAP client, configured to use their personal CNAME as a way to find the IMAP server. Users who use their CNAME will need to reconfigure their email. Read more: https://it.cornell.edu/news/retiring-cnames-may-impact-some-users/20170511

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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