IT Security: National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2019 Champion

National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2019 - Wrap Up!

Understanding how to improve our professional and personal cyber security awareness is crucial in this world of constant connection.

NCSAM is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its public and private partners, including the National Cyber Security Alliance, to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and individual cyber hygiene.

Throughout the month of October UNIT, in partnership with the National Cyber Security Alliance, celebrated National Cyber Security Awareness Month. We explored the theme of "Own IT. Protect IT. Secure IT" by offering a variety of resources to the campus community. Important topics included safe social media, updating privacy settings, and best practices for device applications. If you missed these tips on our social media, or have any questions about NCSAM 2019, our materials, or cybersecurity awareness in general, please visit https://www.dhs.gov/stopthinkconnect

Blackboard Winter Maintenance

Beginning on December 26th at 330AM/EST, Blackboard will be unavailable due to a system upgrade.  Blackboard Learn will be migrating from managed hosted to SaaS continuous delivery model. SaaS continuous delivery will provide more frequent releases which means more opportunities for bug fixes and enhancements made available in Blackboard throughout the year while eliminating Blackboard downtime for these updates.

The downtime needed for this upgrade is 72 hours. While the system will be available periodically from December 26th through December 29th, please be advised that Villanova staff will be making additional changes to the system until December 29th. We advise that no changes be made by faculty or students during this time.

In compliance with updated university policies regarding data retention, CIT will archive old courses from Bb Learn.  Additionally, the license for storage in Bb is finite and requires us to purge courses from the system to stay within our limit.  All courses in the following terms to be archived: Spring17, Summer17, Fall17.  These courses will be stored offline for a period of five years. The policy for Blackboard courses can be found HERE.

For more information on the Winter Upgrade and New/Updated Features, stay tuned for updates on the Blackboard SaaS Updates website here. If you have any questions, please email your Blackboard Learn coordinator or email CIT.

Microsoft Bookings

UNIT's UIS team, in partnership with the Office of the Provost and Faculty Ombuds, designed a solution that leverages Microsoft Bookings (a scheduling tool included in Office365) and other Villanova support applications to deliver an efficient and customized experience for scheduling and communicating. Using Microsoft Bookings, Microsoft Forms, Adobe Experience Manager, and MyNova; the services of the Faculty Ombuds are available to our campus faculty for scheduling meetings and consultations. Learn more by visiting  here or here. 

Furthermore, UNIT has begun utilizing Microsoft Bookings in multiple locations on campus. Allowing users reserve resources, to book meetings and submit calendar invitations.  Most recently in the TechZone @ The Commons, Bookings has been used to easily create a link which lets users find available times to schedule rooms and resources. Clients can find the link by searching for the "Tech Zone" in MyNova or by following the direct link.

Student office 365 licensing Update New Microsoft Office365 Offerings to Students

Office 365 suite is the cloud-based version of the Microsoft Office desktop suite and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive and much more. In mid-October UNIT upgraded the Office 365 Student Licenses to offer a higher-level of increasing student functionality.

When logging in, students now have access to:

• Full use of Skype for Business, including "join by Phone" for meetings, using your O365 Villanova account credentials
•  Access to Powerbi, Stream and MyAnalytics tiles in the Office 365 Portal
• Availability of multiple Excel plugs ins
• Welcome email to MyAnalytics as well as a weekly digest

TechZone @ The Commons Grand Opening

In August the University and UNIT introduced the new TechZone @ The Commons located in Chapter Hall, in the newly constructed Commons section of campus. This facility is a technology driven innovative area designed with flexible workspaces for collaboration, use and exposure to emerging technology and technology driven group/event usage. The space offers:

• Multiple collaborative and presentation areas
• Large Conference room
• 2 Breakout rooms
• Virtual reality Technology
• 3-D Printing Capabilities
• Student vPrint Stations
• Mobile Charging stations
• iMac and Window vDesktop solutions   

While the TechZone@TheCommons was designed to be student centric, all members of the Villanova community are welcome to visit and utilize its resources. For more information on Villanova's TechZones please click HERE.

Faculty and Staff PC Refresh Update

The University 2019 PC Refresh Program providing all eligible full-time faculty/staff a new laptop/desktop computer has completed successfully.  This program involves upgrading current hardware models along with a software refresh while placing a high level of importance on items such as security features, storage space, speed, mobility, and manageability. UNIT and the University Colleges collaborated to migrate and distribute new computers to the full-time faculty post-graduation for May and June 2019 with additional refresh installs in the fall to account availability conflicts. The Migration and distribution phase for staff occurred during the Spring 2019 semester. Through all phases of the project nearly 2000 machines were migrated and distributed to campus.