My Computer is Infected, Now What?

It happens in a blink of an eye–if you click on a link, attachment, or file that downloads an exploit–your computer is infected! Some signs that a computer is infected include a browser home page that you did not select, sudden slowness, unexplained hard drive activity, or the inability of your computer to access the network. If you notice any of these symptoms, contact OET immediately, and disconnect your computer from the network by unplugging the Ethernet cable or disabling the wireless adapter.

To get your computer back on track, OET will run antivirus and anti-malware software to determine if an infection exists. We also will search the hard drive for personal nonpublic information (PNPI). If no PNPI exists, we will either clean your hard drive or, more likely, reformat it. If we reformat your drive, we will back up your files, wipe you current hard drive of all information, and restore your applications and files. This procedure usually takes a day or less. If PNPI exists on the hard drive, we will contact IT to determine if any further action is necessary. During this more extensive investigation by IT, expect not to be able to access your computer for several days.

To insure that your computer is exploit-free and always up and running, keep virus protection up to date, apply operating system and application updates, avoid clicking on links or attachments that you were not expecting to receive, and follow IT’s guidelines for storing PNPI.

What Phones Will Synchronize With My Exchange Mail, Calendar, and Contacts?

With so many phones available, it’s important to choose a phone with the options you need including the ability to synchronize with the OET server, if you are an Exchange client. If you can access your mail through OET webmail, then you are an Exchange client, and you should look for a phone that runs Windows Mobile or an Apple iPhone. These phones can synchronize with OET’s Exchange server and give you access to your mail, calendar, and contacts on the go.

Although Blackberry phones will connect to the OET server to allow you to read mail, they will not allow you to synchronize your calendar or contacts. To access calendar items and contacts on a Blackberry, you would need to log onto OET’s webmail through the phone’s browser.

Phishing Scam Wants You to Read Urgent UD News

Some OET clients have received a phishing e-mail from news@udel.edu that requests that they click on a link and enter in their UDNet ID and password to read urgent UD news. Upon examination of the link, it will take anyone who clicks on it to a site outside of the University of Delaware. Delete this message if you receive it and do not click on the link. It is a scam to obtain your UD login credentials.

Clearing Cache within Entourage Helps with Mail Synchronization

Clearing the cache within Entourage occasionally may assist Exchange clients who experience mail or calendar synchronization problems with the use of multiple devices such as an iPhone and Macintosh laptop.

To clear the cache, open Entourage (log off any other instances of Exchange on your iPhone, for example) and verify that you are connected to the Exchange server. Within Entourage, on the left, mouse over the name of your Exchange account and press the Control key and the mouse button together to get the “right mouse button” menu. Select Folder Properties. Under the General tab, which opens by default, click on the Empty button to empty the cache.

Outlook Autocomplete Tip

As you probably know, Outlook has a feature which builds a list of email addresses you have used before.  This list is used for automatically completing the address when you begin typing into the “TO:”  or “CC:” box on a new message.

Over time, the list can become rather long and might contain addresses that you no longer need in the list. 

To delete an address from the list:

• Open a new message and begin typing an email recipient’s name or address in the “To:” box.  Keep typing until the address you want to remove appears in the autocompete list.
• Using your arrow keys, highlight the address you want to delete.
• Hit the Delete key.

Messages rejected from people I never sent e-mail to

Periodically we get reports that a client, or a whole department, is suddenly seeing a lot of e-mail messages saying that messages from them failed to reach their recipients.  The problem: they never wrote those messages and never heard of the people they were sent to.  This is an old problem and it won’t go away until the world switches to an e-mail system which at least tries to assure that the pretended author of a message actually logged on with the proper credentials.  (Most mailers in common use do not, so recipient systems must accept mail without checking.)  How this results in the storms of false returns you see is nicely explained in this article from  January 2006.

Viewing Shared Calendars with Outlook Web Access

Outlook Web Access (OWA) is great for accessing your mail and calendar from anywhere on the web.  However, viewing someone else’s shared calendar with OWA is not as straight forward as it is with Outlook.  With OWA you don’t have the convenient check boxes in the navigation pane to choose the shared calendars you want to see.  You can view a shared calendar by keying in the necessary information into the browser’s address line:

Example:  When you’re in OET Webmail, your address line will show as follows:

https://webmail.oet.udel.edu/exchange/ 

After the final slash, key in: Smith/calendar

Like this: https://webmail.oet.udel.edu/exchange/Smith/calendar

Where Smith is the Windows user name sharing the calendar.

Danger From E-Mail Attachments

Recently, a new phishing e-mail purporting to be from UPS has been making the rounds on the internet.  The e-mail contains a virus that spreads through an attachment.  Never click on attachments in e-mail unless you are certain that the message is actually from the stated sender and that the sender intentionally attached the file to the e-mail for your use.  If you have any doubts at all, delete it.  As always, e-mail oet-help@udel.edu with any questions about suspicious e-mail messages.

How to Export Outlook Contacts

If you want to move or copy your Outlook Contacts to another email system, there are a few options from which to choose.  For instance, if you’re moving the contacts to another Outlook environment, the best way to port the data would be to save the data in an Outlook “.pst” file.  This file type saves the data in exactly the same format as the original contact information.  If the new email system is not Outlook, you would choose one of the following file types: Comma Separated Values, Tab Separated Values, MS Access or MS Excel.  If you’re unsure of the file type your new email system expects, your best bet is to use Comma Separated Values (.csv).  This file type can be easily converted to many other file types, if necessary.

1. On the Outlook file menu, choose Import and Export…
2. In the Import and Export Wizard select Export to a file.
3. On the first Export to a file window, select your file type.
4. On the next Export to a file window, locate and select your Contacts item under Mailbox – yourname.
5. On the next Export to a file window, key in or browse to a place to save the file.
6. On the final Export to a file window you have a chance to Map Custom Fields, in case your new email system requires different field names for the contact information.  If not, just hit Finish, and you’re done.

Keeping Appointments Private in Outlook

If you are an Exchange client who shares an Outlook calendar with other staff members, there’s a way to keep your child’s recital, furniture delivery, and other personal appointments private.  To make an appointment private within Outlook, right-click on the individual appointment and select private. If an appointment is part of a series, right-click and select “Edit Series” then click on the icon of the lock to make the series private.